Modern Healthcare and HIMSS Annouce 2003 CEO IT Achievement Award Recipients

The CEO IT Achievement Award recognizes healthcare industry CEOs who demonstrate leadership and commitment to using information technology to advance their healthcare organization's strategic goals.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
David Burda
Editor
312.649.5439
dburda@crain.com               

Modern Healthcare and HIMSS Announce
2003 CEO IT Achievement Award Recipients

CHICAGO (PR WEB) April 24, 2003 -- HIMSS and Modern Healthcare announced today the recipients of the 2003 CEO IT Achievement Award. George Vecchione, president and CEO of Lifespan healthcare system, Providence, RI, and Pete Velez, executive director of Elmhurst Hospital Center, Elmhurst, NY and senior vice president of Queens Healthcare Network, Queens, NY were selected as this years recipients.

The CEO IT Achievement Award recognizes healthcare industry CEOs who demonstrate leadership and commitment to using information technology to advance their healthcare organizations strategic goals.

Vecchione and Velez were chosen from a field of 50 applicants by a panel of healthcare CEOs and CIOs from some of the nations most prominent healthcare institutions.

Today it is absolutely critical for CEOs to recognize and implement information technology in their organizations in order for them to serve their patients, physicians, nurses and colleagues better. Those institutions that do will be the ones that win coveted quality awards now and in the future. George Vecchione and Pete Velez are two pioneers who recognize the role of information technology in healthcare," said Chuck Lauer, publisher of Modern Healthcare.

The recipients of this award are true leaders in the healthcare information technology industry," said H. Stephen Lieber, president/CEO of HIMSS. They had the foresight to implement technology solutions within their organizations and to provide their ongoing support for the improvement of patient care. HIMSS is honored to recognize George Vecchione and Pete Velez for their leadership and contributions to the industry."

HIMSS and Modern Healthcare will honor Vecchione and Velez at an awards dinner on June 9 held in conjunction with the HIMSS summer conference in Chicago. The recipients and their organizations will also be profiled in a special supplement to the June 9 issue of Modern Healthcare.
                                
For more information about the CEO IT Achievement Awards contact David Burda at 312.649.5439 or dburda@crain.com or visit www.modernhealthcare.com. For information about the June 9 Awards Dinner contact Mike Konstant, HIMSS membership director, at 312.915.9239 or mkonstant@himss.org.

Modern Healthcare is the industrys only business news weekly, providing healthcare executives the most reliable, up-to-date and comprehensive business news and information. In addition to print, readers access our news online at modernhealthcare.com and via our daily e-newsletter, the Daily Dose. With this three-tired approach to news, our award-winning staff of editors and reporters delivers information that enables healthcare leaders to take constructive action and improve performance.    

HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) is the healthcare industry's only membership organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology and management systems for the betterment of human health. Representing more than 13,000 individual members, HIMSS shapes and directs healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems' contributions to quality patient care.
###