Dr. Heaton serves as president and chief medical officer of LCMC Health, providing system-level physician executive leadership across quality, patient safety, case management, utilization management and population health. He partners with hospital CEOs, CNOs and physician leaders to establish clinical standards, strengthen governance and drive performance improvement across hospitals, service lines and care settings. Dr. Heaton’s career reflects a progression from frontline anesthesiology leadership to enterprise oversight, having joined Children’s Hospital New Orleans in 2000 and later serving as its senior vice president and chief medical officer after leadership roles in patient safety and quality. In his system role, he has been instrumental in aligning peer review and professional practice evaluation processes to improve consistency and reduce unwarranted care variation. Dr. Heaton is known as a collaborative leader who builds physician engagement during change through transparent communication, consensus-building and steady operational discipline. He is committed to medical education, serving as a clinical faculty member at LSU and Tulane, strengthening workforce development across the region.
