Navigating the Clinical Component
The pediatric anesthesia team provides coverage across surgical, procedural, and diagnostic settings at Ochsner’s New Orleans facilities. The daily case mix spans general pediatric surgery, subspecialty surgical support, neonatal cases, and imaging under anesthesia. Pediatric anesthesiologists rarely exceed a concurrency of two operating rooms, and cover a single room when handling cases from the NICU.
Patient Population
- Pediatric patients through age 6 after hours, through age 12 for complex cases
- Neonatal ICU patients requiring procedural and surgical anesthesia
- Full pediatric surgical population across multiple subspecialties
Case Mix and Services
- General pediatric surgery
- Subspecialty surgical support for ENT, orthopedic surgery, urology, and neurosurgery
- Pediatric cardiac cases handled by the dedicated pediatric cardiac anesthesia group
- Neonatal ICU cases at the Baptist campus, typically three to four per week, covered in the afternoon alongside the on-call assignment
- Pediatric MRI, roughly five per day, plus pediatric auditory brainstem response procedures
- Pediatric CT under anesthesia, three to five per week
- Ophthalmology cases
- A specialized pediatric endoscopy suite and additional procedure rooms are planned for the new Children’s Hospital
Coverage Model
- Concurrency rarely exceeds two operating rooms per anesthesiologist
- Single-room coverage for NICU cases
- One room at a time at the Baptist campus
- No more than two rooms at the Jefferson Highway location
Call
Call covers pediatric anesthesia patients only and is currently taken from home. Case volume on call shifts is low. Call may move in-house when the new Children’s Hospital opens in 2028.
Call Detail
| Structure |
Rotation |
| Rotation |
1:7 to 1:8 |
| Weekday call |
6:00 AM to 4:00 PM, on call for the night |
| Weekend call |
Friday 4:00 PM to Monday 6:30 AM |
| Second call |
Pediatric cardiac available for second pediatric call; separate general second call for adult cases |
| Call location |
From home currently; call room available for in-house call |
CRNA and Resident Support
The group includes 75 CRNAs, five of whom specialize in pediatric patients. Neonatal cases are supported by the specialty pediatric CRNA group or by resident call, with two residents on the pediatric service each month.
Academic and Teaching
- Teaching responsibilities with anesthesia residents, and with pediatric anesthesia fellows once the new fellowship program begins
- Ochsner is working to establish a Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship, which would be the only such program in Louisiana
- The fellowship program director is one of the pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists
- Academic appointments are available through Xavier School of Medicine
- A tuition exchange benefit has been announced as forthcoming, with eligibility beginning at the Associate Professor level
EMR
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