Clinical Component

Elevating Healthcare Services for Providers and Patients

Your practice at Norman Regional centers on adult cardiac surgery with a growing thoracic component. The infrastructure is already built: a dedicated CABG operating room, a hybrid suite, physician-only cardiovascular anesthesia, perfusion, and a surgical APP team that first-assists and rounds. You would step into a program that is running, not one you have to assemble.

Operational Snapshot

Patient Population

Norman Regional serves south central Oklahoma, a region with high rates of cardiovascular disease and one of the higher lung cancer burdens in the state. Leadership describes the patient base as sick enough that there is more than enough surgical volume to support two full-time cardiothoracic surgeons.

Referrals come primarily from the cardiology service line, which is expanding from 5 to 8 interventional cardiologists and from 2 to 4 non-invasive cardiologists. Clinic visits include surgical consults and structural heart co-visits.

Procedures

Core Caseload

• Coronary artery bypass grafting, the primary clinical need
• Valve surgery
• Thoracotomy
• Wedge resection

Established Programs You Would Support

• Structural heart program with an active TAVR volume
• EP program with a dedicated EP room in the cath lab and an electrophysiologist on staff, which limits the pacemaker cases that fall to the surgeon

Growth Areas

• Peripheral vascular procedures, open to you if trained; a vascular surgeon and the interventional cardiology group also provide vascular coverage
• Thoracic surgery tied to the lung nodule program, a top strategic priority for the system
• Mitral valve services, which leadership plans to expand
• Backup for complex thyroid and parathyroid cases. Norman Regional has a surgeon who specializes in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. When a tumor involves mediastinal structures, the cardiothoracic surgeon provides operative backup and receives wRVU credit for the case

Not Currently Performed

• Mitral clip (a future goal)
• Embolectomy
• High-level trauma

Operating Room Resources

• One OR dedicated to CABG, with a second room available as your volume grows
• Hybrid OR
• Cardiovascular anesthesia provided by a tenured contract group of MD anesthesiologists; no CRNA coverage on cardiac cases
• Perfusionists on staff
• Cath lab leadership with 23 years at Norman Regional; several cardiovascular staff members have been with the system for more than 20 years

Clinic Setting

Clinic is at Heart Plaza, adjacent to the hospital. Each surgeon has approximately 4 exam rooms and access to a shared procedure room. Because your clinic days are staggered with your colleague's, you would have the full clinic space on the days you are there.

AI scribing is available to reduce documentation time. Each provider is assigned a dedicated support staff member.

APP Support

The cardiothoracic surgery APP team is hospital employed and works exclusively with the surgeons.

• Two APPs hold RNFA credentials. They first-assist in the OR, perform vein harvesting, round on inpatients, and see follow-up visits in clinic
• One APP is dedicated to the ICU, rounding on surgical patients and assisting the surgeons on the unit
• Leadership describes the surgical APP team as experienced and highly capable

Call Structure

Your contract caps required call at a maximum of 10 days per month, and those days are built into base compensation. The two full-time surgeons share the schedule, and Norman Regional uses locum coverage to fill additional call days as needed. Any call you take above 10 days in a month is paid separately. The hospital is fully staffed for weekend inpatient coverage, and your APPs support weekend rounding.

What Physicians Say About Norman Regional

Norman Regional takes a patient-first approach and places visible priority on physician work-life balance. These comments came from current Norman Regional physicians during a site visit by Pacific Companies:

"I love the flexibility of leadership and their willingness to listen to my concerns and ideas."

"After joining Norman Regional, I expected leadership to fade into the background like my previous employer, never to be heard from. However, that wasn't the case here. My director visits me at least once every couple of weeks just to make sure I have everything I need. And if I do have needs, he's quick to act and make my work experience the best it can be."

"As a provider, I value quality patient care and making sure the patient feels they are being heard. I voice this regularly and the leadership team listens and delivers tools that help me to provide that quality care and provide my patients with the best possible experience during their visit."