Chicago—Sixteen senior executives have been selected to participate in the second class of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Health Care System Transformation Fellowship. The Fellowship is an intensive six-month program that provides participants with a road map of how to design and plan for new care delivery and payment models, such as medical homes, bundled payments and clinical integration programs.

Reston, Virginia—The United States is a leader in healthcare information technology (IT) use and adoption by physicians, according to a new eight-country study from Accenture.

Mastering Precepting: A Nurse’s Handbook for Success s written specifically as a guidebook for nurses who are preceptors, who are thinking of becoming preceptors or those who supervise preceptors.

Tokyo, Japan / Bothell, Washington—FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation a diversified technology company that operates in healthcare, highly functional materials, and document solutions, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with SonoSite, Inc., a pioneer and leader in bedside and point-of-care ultrasound technology.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), in conjunction with the Partnership for Patients – an initiative of the Department of Health & Human Services – and with the support of Health 2.0, have announced the winners of the “Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home” innovation challenge.  Three teams were named winners: Axial Exchange,iBlueButton, and VoIDSPAN.

New Orleans— At the 46th Annual Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), Cardinal Health launched BarCode360, a solution that supports hospitals’ medication safety initiatives by making it easier, more timely and cost efficient to order medications and ensure more unit-dose medications can be scanned at the patient bedside.

Orlando, Florida—The Picker Award for Excellence, which recognizes outstanding achievement in promoting and furthering patient-centered care, was awarded to Dr. Don Berwick on Wednesday, Dec. 7, the last day of the 23rd annual national forum hosted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which Dr. Berwick cofounded in 1989.

Horsham, Pennsylvania—The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) announced its 14th Annual Cheers Awards winners and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events. The winners of this year’s awards are:

Washington, D.C.—Sixty-five hospitals have earned The Leapfrog Group’s annual “Top Hospital” designation, equaling 2010’s record-setting total. The “Top Hospital” designation, which is the most competitive national hospital quality award in the country, recognizes hospitals that deliver the highest quality care by preventing medical errors, reducing mortality for high-risk procedures like heart bypass surgery, and reducing hospital readmissions for patients being treated for conditions like pneumonia and heart attack.