Birmingham, Ala.-based Baptist Health System has started employing registered nurses as health coaches to ensure that chronic condition patients are taking the necessary precautions to prevent hospital admission or readmission, according to a Birmingham Business Journal report.

Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare has become an affiliate of MD Anderson Cancer Network, a program of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

San Diego Physicians Medical Group, Encinitas, Calif.-based Connect-the-Docs Multi Specialty Network and La Jolla, Calif.-based XIMED Medical Group have joined to create a physician group partnering with San Diego-based Scripps Health, according to an article on the KUSI News website.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Baptist Health and American Family Care, an urgent and family care company also based in Birmingham, announced that they will partner to provide primary and urgent care services throughout Central Alabama.

Perioperative briefings and debriefings are a good way to improve communication and teamwork in the operating room and can lead to improved patient outcomes, according to an article in JAMA Surgery.

Damaged medical mattresses and stretchers pose an infection risk to patients.

  Nearly half of Americans have reported that their most stressful experiences in the past year have been related to health, according to a new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health poll.

  CliniWorks announced a strategic alliance between its subsidiary CliniWorks (Israel) and Pfizer to develop a population health management platform solution.

A recent analysis of 2012 Medicare payment data for hospital-based physician services found that while non hospital-based physicians outnumber hospitalists when it comes to providing hospital care, hospitals perform more hospital-based services compared to non-hospital based physicians.

HHS announced new prospective awardees to test innovative care models, bringing the total amount of funding to as much as $360 million for 39 recipients.