The Collaborative Model for Improving Care A Collaborative is a systematic approach to healthcare quality improvement in which organizations and providers test and measure practice innovations, then share their experiences in an effort to accelerate learning and widespread implementation of best practices. A Collaborative involves a time-limited effort with multiple organizations (or multiple facilities within a single organization) coming together with expert faculty to learn about and to create improved processes in a specific clinical topic area. In 2002, the National Surgical Infection Prevention Collaborative was launched to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Collaborative approach to quality improvement within the context of services provided by Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs). The National Surgical Infection Prevention Collaborative was sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which contracted with Qualis Health, the QIO for Washington, Idaho and Alaska, to lead and facilitate the national Collaborative sessions. QIOs and hospital teams throughout the U.S. made significant improvements in the quality of surgical care. In 2003 and 2004, QIOs in each state began offering regional and statewide Collaboratives to assist hospital teams working to prevent surgical site infections. For more information about the National SIP Collaborative, visit http://www.qualishealth.org/collaboratives/sip.htm For more information about the Collaborative Model, visit http://www.qualishealth.org/collaboratives/index.html