"Hurricane Katrina, Stories From Below the Waterline” by Joe Guarisco, MD

Joseph S. Guarisco, MD FAAEM FACEP, Healthcare Operations Consulting

Dr. Guarisco is past Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and System Chief of Emergency Services for the Ochsner Health System. He joined Ochsner as a staff physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine in August 1980.  In July 1990, he pursued a fellowship in anesthesiology at Ochsner.  In July 1992, he returned to emergency medicine as Chairman and Medical Director of the Emergency Department and System Chief Emergency Medicine in 2007.

Dr Joe Guarisco has pioneered ED workflow redesign through innovative applications of Lean and other key engineering principles related to ED patient flow processes and space design elements. Twice he has won “Innovator of the Year” awarded by the City of New Orleans and City Business Magazine for his work in ED Workflow. His workflow and staffing optimization concepts were presented in 20 states, Marseille France and Hamburg Germany and the European Society for Emergency Medicine.

In addition, he was recognized for developing and implementing the first web-based ED patient wait times application in emergency medicine for public use.

He is also on the faculty for the Loyola New Orleans HealthCare MBA program leading courses on Lean applications to supply management principles.

He retired from Ochsner in late 2019 to pursue consulting as principle in a new health management LLC. Currently, he provides consulting and management services to International SOS, a global medical services and security company and serves as there North America medical director for Remote Medical Services managing medical services for major airlines, aerospace specifically SpaceX, mega-yachts, shipping and maritime worldwide.