The Surgery Residency Program at Ochsner Health is a 5-year ACGME-accredited free-standing residency program. The Ochsner General Surgery Program is nonpyramidal, entering one preliminary and seven categorical PGY I interns, and graduating seven chief residents. Ochsner is located in the suburbs of New Orleans, close to the excitement of one of the nation's premier cities for food and entertainment but safely removed from the hectic pace of urban life. The mission of the Ochsner Surgery Program is to provide broad-based experience and training in all facets of general surgery practice and science. This is accomplished by providing an ideal mix of training venues, a talented and academically oriented staff, a well-planned educational curriculum, extensive research activity, regular resident-program director interaction and feedback, and outstanding fellowship and employment opportunities.

The clinical training for the Surgery program at Ochsner occurs at six facilities. The Ochsner Clinic Foundation main campus in New Orleans provides two-thirds of the resident's experience, and three others are located in the greater New Orleans region. Ochsner Health is an integrated health care system in Southeast Louisiana that provides routine and specialty care for patients from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. The resident experience also includes rotations at the Ochsner Kenner, Baptist, and Northshore locations; in addition to the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma.

The remaining 5% of each resident’s experience is provided on the region’s only Level I Trauma Service at University Medical Center (UMC) for rotations in Trauma/Critical Care in New Orleans. UMC is a Level I trauma center located 5.4 miles from the main campus of Ochsner.

Clinical Experience - Surgery Residency Program

PGY-1

The emphasis during the PGY I year is to develop experience in all facets of pre- and postoperative surgical care while mastering the fundamentals of general surgical technique and principles. Operative experience is considered moderate with approximately 100 uncomplicated surgical and endoscopic procedures performed by the PGY I house staff.

Rotations

PGY-2

Residents' operative experience is again considered moderate and is commensurate with the residents' technical abilities. In general, by the completion of the PGY II year, residents have completed over 250 cases as surgeons.

Rotations

• Acute Care Surgery
• Breast Surgical Oncology
• Cardiac Critical Care
• General Surgery at Ochsner Kenner Medical Center
• Pediatric Surgery
• Surgical Critical Care
• Trauma Surgery at UMC
• General Surgery at Leonard Chabert Medical Center (LCMC) in Houma

PGY-3

The third-year operative experience is considered extensive. The average resident in the Ochsner program has performed more than 600 surgical procedures by the completion of the PGY III year.

Rotations

• Acute Care Surgery
• Breast Surgical Oncology
• General Surgery at Ochsner Northshore Medical Complex
• Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery
• Transplant Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• General Surgery at Leonard Chabert Medical Center (LCMC) in Houma
• Night Float ICU

PGY-4

As the complexity of cases increase, our fourth-year residents perform between 250-350 operative procedures during this very busy year, bringing the total surgeon cases to over 800 by the end of the fourth year.

Rotations

• Endocrine Surgery
• General Surgery at Ochsner Kenner Medical Center
• Pediatric Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Thoracic Surgery
• Trauma Surgery at UMC
• General Surgery at Leonard Chabert Medical Center (LCMC) in Houma

PGY-5

The average chief resident performs 250-350 general surgical procedures, bringing the total operative experience to between 1050-1350 cases by the completion of training. We encourage a graduated level of autonomy and the expectations of chief residents to begin to function independently both in making clinical decisions as well as in the OR.

Rotations

• Acute Care Surgery
• Colon and Rectal Surgery
• General Surgery at Ochsner Northshore Medical Complex
• Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• General Surgery at Leonard Chabert Medical Center (LCMC) in Houma