Curriculum: The Clinical Setting

The division offers comprehensive exposure to clinical nephrology in a wide range of clinical practice settings.  The full-time clinical rotation is centered around the three major teaching hospitals of Tulane Health Sciences Center, all adjacent to the medical school complex:  Tulane Univerity Hospital, the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System.

Tulane University Hospital and Clinics is a private institutions providing 300 acute care beds.  The hospital is principally a multi-specialty tertiary care center and contains extensive state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities.  Once ward is dedicated to renal patients.  There is a 6-station acute dialysis unit equipped with high flux hemodialysis machines, and additional peritoneal dialysis cycling machines used for chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients admitted to the hospital.  The renal service also consults on patients throughout the hospital. Over 60 renal transplantations are performed per year and are followed jointly by the nephrology and transplant surgical services.

Tulane Hospital and Clinics is a multi-specialty tertiary care center providing 300 acute care beds and state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities.

The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans is a 700 bed hospital that has been serving the needs of the indigent for over 250 years.  The nephrology clinical activities are coordinated by the consult service.

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center is a 530 bed hospital, of which 263 beds are medical.  The nephrology patients are seen on a consultative basis. Acute dialysis is provided through the dialysis unit.

Outpatient experience is ongoing throughout the fellowship.  The outpatient dialysis units, located within the Tulane Hospital complex, with branches on the West Bank and in New Orleans East, provide state-of-the-art dialysis care to over 150 patients.  Additionally, the unit provides training and support for CAPD; the current CAPD population is 40. Each fellow is responsible for a dialysis shift under the guidance of one of the faculty members.

The Fellows attend the two outpatient teaching clinics located at the VA Medical Center and the Hutchinson Cilnic (the ambulatory clinic of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans).