Ochsner is a community program with a good reputation. However, being an ivory-tower sort of hospital, the residents don't get a lot of autonomy. They also get very little trauma exposure (Charity is the only trauma center in town and is split between Tulane and LSU). Ochsner residents have to go to Mobile for their trauma rotation. LSU is a good bread and butter type of program. The residents are happy and work hard. Their graduates tend to go into private practice as it's not a very academic program. They spend an average of 6-8 months every year out of town in Baton Rouge and Lafayette (1 and 2 hours from New Orleans, respectively). They spoke well of the training they get out of town. However, I couldn't imagine having a family or being in a serious relationship and preserving it through that much time out of town each year. Tulane residents work very hard and there are some unhappy upper levels. They hit a rough time a few years ago and lost some good faculty. They've just hired a bunch of new, young faculty and I think will be back to being a top notch program very shortly. Of the three programs, I liked Tulane's setup the most. They spend a lot of time at Charity, yet still get the tertiary care exposure at their private hospital. Either way, all three programs are good, it just depends on what you want in your career: gen surg private practice - LSU; private gen surg practice or big name fellowship - Ochsner; option for academics or big name fellowship - Tulane;.
