Collaborative (IHC) has been awarded a two year, $5.3 million, federal contract to bring Partnership for Patients, a national quality initiative, to the state’s hospitals.

The nonprofit organization will work with the Iowa Hospital Association and Telligen, Iowa’s Medicare quality assurance organization, to implement the program, which is funded through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

All 117 of Iowa’s hospitals have agreed to participate in the initiative, which will form “hospital engagement networks” to improve their performance by focusing on reducing various types of hospital-related infections and other preventable events.