International course on ‘Care pathways’ and organization of care processes Solstrand Fjord Hotel, OS, Norway, 12–14 September 2011

Since 2007, the European Pathway Association (E-P-A) has successfully organized one-week courses in planning and implementation of Care pathways at Lake Orta, Italy. In 2011, E-P-A goes for another option: this time the E-P-A organizes a three-day course in Care pathways that includes the core contents of the previous ‘Summer Schools’. Now, the wonderful Italian environment is replaced with another beautiful location: the ‘Solstrand Fjord Hotel’ (Figure 1) (meaning ‘Sunny Beach Fjord Hotel’), which is situated 30 minutes south of the city of Bergen at the west coast of Norway. Bergen is Norway’s second biggest city and it is known for the Bryggen Hanseatic Wharf, the fish market, and surrounding mountains and fjords, such as the Hardangerfjord and Sognefjord, see http://www.visitnorway. com/en/Stories/Norway/Fjord-Norway/Bergen/ (Figure 2). The choice of a course location in Scandinavia is made for strategic reasons as Care pathways are only very rarely known as tools to achieve quality improvement in health care here. That is; E-P-A is now about to spread the message of Care pathways to the Nordic countries! The course is organized in close collaboration with the Research Network on Integrated Health Care in Western Norway and the Norwegian National E-P-A section.