Your clinical day at Ochsner's CV-ICU puts you at the center of one of the highest-complexity pediatric cardiac programs in the region. The unit currently operates at 12 beds with a daily census of 10 to 12 patients, the majority of whom arrive directly from the OR following cardiac surgery. Approximately 70% of your caseload is surgery-related; the remaining 30% is cardiology-driven. That ratio reflects what this program is: a true surgical cardiac ICU, not a general PICU that also handles post-op hearts.
The acuity here is real. You will manage patients on ECMO, ventricular assist devices, and continuous renal replacement therapy. You will care for children who have undergone open-heart surgery at a rate of more than 200 cases per year, and you will support a heart transplant program that has historically averaged around 12 transplants annually. Ochsner is the only institution in Louisiana performing heart transplants and implanting VADs in the pediatric population. Nine VADs were placed in the two years prior to mid-2024, with four already completed by August of that year. When these patients need critical care, they come here.
The congenital heart population spans from birth through age 30, giving you a broad patient range within a focused subspecialty context. Most admissions come from the OR, though the Emergency Department also feeds the unit. Day shift runs with a CV-ICU attending, APPs, and a resource physician shared between the CV-ICU and PICU. Night shift includes "tuck-in" rounds with nursing to confirm the plan and identify any reason to adjust course.
Additional subspecialty support is immediately accessible, including electrophysiology, adult congenital heart disease specialists, and advanced cardiac imaging. If the CV-ICU reaches capacity, overflow can move to the PICU. The program does not have fellows or residents in the CV-ICU at this time, which means your clinical environment is APP-supported and attending-driven. Teaching opportunities exist through residency programs and numerous subspecialty fellowships across the institution, and academic productivity is encouraged but carries no publication pressure.
The new Children's Hospital opening in 2027 will expand the CV-ICU to 20 beds, with updated infrastructure and equipment choices that the incoming physician will help select. You are not walking into a static unit. You are joining a program in deliberate, well-resourced motion.