Norman Regional Earns Five American Heart Association Awards in Stroke, Heart Failure and Cardiac Care

Norman Regional has been honored with five 2026 recognitions from the American Heart Association (AHA), including four Get With The Guidelines® quality achievement awards and the Commitment to Quality award. Together, the honors recognize the health system's sustained commitment to delivering fast, evidence-based, life-saving care to patients across south central Oklahoma.

The four program-specific awards span stroke, heart failure and two forms of coronary artery disease: ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). The Commitment to Quality award recognizes Norman Regional's strong performance across multiple Get With The Guidelines programs, highlighting a systemwide dedication to data-driven, team-based care. Together, the five honors place Norman Regional among hospitals nationwide recognized for consistently meeting or exceeding national standards of cardiovascular and stroke care.

The Five Awards, Explained

1. Get With The Guidelines – Stroke GOLD PLUS, with Target: Stroke Honor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll

This is the AHA/American Stroke Association's top-tier stroke recognition. GOLD PLUS status means Norman Regional consistently followed the latest evidence-based treatment guidelines for stroke patients, including rapid diagnosis, clot-dissolving medication administration, and coordinated care between the emergency department, imaging, neurology and rehabilitation teams. The added Target: Stroke and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll distinctions recognize especially fast treatment times and strong outcomes for stroke patients who also have diabetes, a population at higher risk for complications.

2. Get With The Guidelines – Coronary Artery Disease NSTEMI GOLD, with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll

This award recognizes excellence in treating NSTEMI, a serious type of heart attack in which a coronary artery is partially blocked. GOLD-level recognition means Norman Regional's cardiac teams consistently delivered guideline-directed therapies, such as timely cardiac catheterization, appropriate medications and structured discharge planning, that are proven to reduce the risk of another cardiac event and improve long-term survival.

3. Get With The Guidelines® – Coronary Artery Disease STEMI Receiving GOLD PLUS, with Target: Type 2 Diabetes

STEMI is a severe type of heart attack caused by a complete or near-complete blockage of blood flow to the heart and requires immediate treatment. This GOLD PLUS receiving-center recognition, based on Norman Regional's Get With The Guidelines data from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2025, reflects sustained performance in key measures such as rapidly restoring blood flow through percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), performing a timely electrocardiogram and prescribing appropriate medications and cardiac rehabilitation at discharge. The Target: Type 2 Diabetes distinction further recognizes evidence-based care for heart attack patients who also have type 2 diabetes.

4. Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure GOLD PLUS, with Target: Heart Failure Optimal and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of hospitalization nationwide, and this GOLD PLUS designation reflects Norman Regional's success in applying the most current heart failure treatment protocols, patient education standards and medication management practices shown to reduce readmissions and improve quality of life. The Target: Heart Failure Optimal distinction adds recognition for going above baseline requirements in areas like early follow-up care.

5. American Heart Association Commitment to Quality Award

The Commitment to Quality award honors hospitals that achieve high performance across three or more Get With The Guidelines programs. Only 222 sites nationwide met the criteria for this award. By earning recognition in stroke, heart failure and coronary artery disease, Norman Regional demonstrated a systemwide dedication to data-driven, team-based care rather than excellence in only one area. The award reflects the coordination required to apply evidence-based standards consistently across multiple clinical teams and points in the patient journey.

What These Awards Mean for Norman Regional

For a hospital system, Get With The Guidelines recognition is earned through continuous, data-driven quality improvement. Every case is measured against national benchmarks, and hospitals must sustain high performance over time to qualify, let alone reach GOLD PLUS status in multiple categories simultaneously.

Earning four program-specific awards in the same year, along with the Commitment to Quality award, signals that Norman Regional's investment in cardiovascular and stroke care isn't siloed. From the emergency department to the cath lab to the medical floor, teams across the health system are working from the same evidence-based playbook, and that consistency shows up in the data the AHA reviewed.

The Commitment to Quality award is especially meaningful because it recognizes the breadth of this work. Strong results are being sustained across stroke, heart failure and coronary artery disease, including care for both STEMI and NSTEMI heart attacks. It also reinforces Norman Regional's role as a trusted destination for advanced cardiac and stroke care in central Oklahoma, at a time when patients increasingly research hospital quality data before choosing where to seek treatment.

What These Awards Mean for Patients

For patients and families in Norman and the surrounding region, these recognitions translate into something very concrete: faster, more reliable care when minutes matter most.

• For stroke patients, GOLD PLUS and Target: Stroke Honor Roll status mean shorter times between arrival and treatment, a factor directly tied to how much brain function a patient recovers.
• For heart attack (NSTEMI) patients, GOLD-level care means a higher likelihood of receiving the right intervention at the right time, lowering the risk of another cardiac event.
• For heart attack (STEMI) patients, GOLD PLUS receiving-center recognition reflects care processes designed to shorten the time to artery-opening treatment, helping limit damage to the heart when every minute matters.
• For heart failure patients, GOLD PLUS recognition means better-coordinated discharge planning and follow-up care, which is strongly linked to fewer hospital readmissions and a better quality of life at home.
• For patients managing type 2 diabetes alongside a heart attack, heart failure or stroke diagnosis, the Target: Type 2 Diabetes distinctions confirm that Norman Regional's care teams are specifically accounting for the added complexity diabetes brings to treatment and recovery.
• For patients across the region, the Commitment to Quality award offers added assurance that Norman Regional's focus on evidence-based care extends across multiple conditions and teams, supporting a more consistent experience throughout the hospital.

In short, these awards reflect both measurable differences in how quickly and how well patients are treated and a broader culture of quality across some of the most critical areas of hospital care.

Why Get With The Guidelines Recognition Matters

The American Heart Association created the Get With The Guidelines program to close the gap between what research shows works best and what actually happens in hospitals day to day. Nationally, cardiovascular disease and stroke remain leading causes of death and long-term disability, and outcomes can vary significantly depending on how quickly and consistently a hospital applies proven treatment protocols.

By tying recognition to real, audited performance data rather than self-reported claims, Get With The Guidelines gives patients, families and referring physicians an independent way to evaluate hospital quality. Achieving GOLD or GOLD PLUS status across four clinical award categories, and earning the Commitment to Quality award for that breadth of performance, is one of the clearest external signals a hospital can earn that its care meets the highest national standards.

Learn more about Norman Regional Health System's cardiovascular and stroke services, or learn more about the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines program.