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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today  $347 million in contracts to 16 organizations, including the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust, to continue efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions in the Medicare program. The Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks will work to reduce overall hospital-acquired conditions by 20% and 30-day hospital readmissions by 12%, building on the success of the Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Networks and Quality Improvement Organizations. AHA/HRET led the largest  projects. “America’s hospitals embrace the ambitious new goals CMS has proposed,”  AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “The vast majority of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals were involved in the successful pursuit of the initial Partnership for Patients aims. Our goal is to get to zero incidents. AHA and our members intend to keep an unrelenting focus on providing better, safer care to our patients – working in close partnership with the federal government and with each other.”