Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines announced that it is one of 35 hospitals in the country selected to participate in the American College of Cardiology Patient Navigator Program. The program is the first of its kind in cardiology designed to support hospitals in providing personalized services to heart disease patients and help them avoid a quick return to the hospital. Iowa Heart Center, which partners with Mercy, has already established many of its own initiatives to reduce hospital readmissions, said Dr. Mark Tannenbaum, chief physician officer of Iowa Heart Center. “Our participation in the ACC program will provide the opportunity to network with others to further develop quality improvement strategies and best practices that can be applied not only locally, but nationally to improve patient care,” he said in a release. Nearly one in five patients hospitalized with heart attack and one in four patients hospitalized with heart failure are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, often for conditions seemingly unrelated to the original diagnosis.