A Ten-state Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial of the Institute for Health Improvement's Project JOINTS

In 2011, IHI designed a new campaign to accelerate uptake of evidence-based practices that had been shown to prevent surgical site infections (SSI) associated with hip and knee arthroplasty. Project JOINTS (Joining Organizations IN Tackling SSIs was a multi-faceted, disciplined initiative that used the Rapid Spread Network (defined above), methods and tools developed during previous IHI campaigns to influence orthopedic practices and hospitals performing hip and knee arthroplasty. Rather than launch nationally as other campaigns have done, Project JOINTS was introduced in a cluster-randomized fashion to enable a rigorous, independent evaluation of its effectiveness in promoting uptake of new evidence-based practices.