Ochsner Health is the leading nonprofit healthcare provider in the Gulf South. Ochsner inspires healthier lives and stronger communities through our mission to serve, heal, lead, educate and innovate.
Lisa Birdsall Fort, MD, named Vice President of Virtual Care Transformation at Ochsner Health
Ochsner Health has named Lisa Birdsall Fort, MD, MPH the vice president of virtual care transformation. In this leadership role, Dr. Fort will oversee operations for Ochsner virtual care centers, including virtual ICU, virtual nursing, telemetry and other inpatient virtual services. She will lead efforts to integrate virtual care options to extend Ochsner’s expert care in more connected and effective ways, to create a better experience for patients.
Dr. Fort joined Ochsner in 2017 and served as medical director of emergency medicine and then section head of the division of emergency medicine at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center. A transformative leader in quality and patient safety and emergency medicine, Dr. Fort established a systemwide quality council to align teams and drive improvement. Her leadership has delivered measurable gains in sepsis, CMS compliance, STEMI, and stroke care while building sustainable, technology-enabled processes that improve patient outcomes.
Under Dr. Fort's leadership, Ochsner launched the Ochsner Virtual Emergency Department, or OvED, a physician-led digital hub that provides real-time triage and care navigation for patients with urgent needs. In its first year, OvED processed nearly 13,800 referrals, safely managed 66% of cases without a physical emergency room visit, and connected 78% of patients to follow-up care. This model helps deliver timely, affordable care, eases pressure on our emergency departments and improves efficiency across the system.
Dr. Fort is board certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics and will continue caring for patients in the Ochsner Baptist emergency department. She earned her medical degree from LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and holds a master’s degree in health systems management from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
About Ochsner Health
Ochsner Health is the leading nonprofit healthcare provider in Louisiana, Mississippi and across the Gulf South, delivering expert care at its 47 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers. Ochsner is nationally recognized for inspiring healthier lives and stronger communities through expertise, quality and digital connectivity. In 2025, more than 40,000 dedicated team members and 5,000 employed and affiliated physicians at Ochsner cared for more than 1.6 million people from every state in the nation and 65 countries. To learn more about how Ochsner empowers people to get well and stay well, visit www.ochsner.org.