Exactly two Louisiana hospitals hold the state's highest neonatal designation — Level IV — and both are in New Orleans: Manning Family Children's and Ochsner Baptist. There is no Level V; Louisiana licenses five tiers and Level IV is the ceiling. If your baby was transported to New Orleans from a delivery anywhere else in the state, the transfer itself is evidence worth understanding.
Last refreshed July 14, 2026 23:28 UTC
| Coverage scope | Louisiana Level IV NICUs, state neonatal licensing tiers, metro NICU coverage, transfer significance for birth-injury review | Answer family | Birth Injury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable fields | Level IV designations, licensing tiers, metro coverage, transfer-evidence framing | Dynamic fields | Hospital-reported ER wait estimates at the Level IV hospitals |
Louisiana has exactly two Level IV NICUs, both in New Orleans. Manning Family Children's (LCMC Health) is the state's freestanding children's hospital — its Level IV NICU takes the sickest newborns by transfer, with ECMO, neonatal surgery, and 24/7 air and ground transport. Ochsner Baptist is the only Level IV NICU inside a birthing hospital in Louisiana, so it is the one place in the state where the highest-level delivery care and the highest-level newborn care sit under one roof. Widely-cited lists that name Woman's Hospital or Our Lady of the Lake as Level IV are wrong — those are Level III and Level III Surgical units.
A NICU transport across the state is not routine. It means the delivering hospital judged the baby's condition beyond its own capability — a concrete fact, documented in transport records, that anchors a record review.
The transport team's notes and the receiving NICU's admission workup often document the baby's condition independently of the delivering hospital — including cord gases, Apgar scores, seizures, and imaging.
Therapeutic hypothermia (total-body cooling) is used for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy — oxygen deprivation around birth. If your baby was cooled at Manning or Ochsner Baptist, that diagnosis belongs at the center of the review.