• Anam Parand, Jonathan Benn, Susan Burnett, Anna Pinto, and Charles Vincent.
• Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Rm 503, 5th Floor Wright Fleming Building, St Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK. a.parand@imperial.ac.uk
• Int J Qual Health Care. 2012 Aug 1;24(4):380-90.

ObjectiveTo identify strategies to facilitate the sustainability of a quality and safety improvement collaborative: the Safer Patients Initiative (SPI) and its successes.DesignA qualitative interview study with a repeated sample at two time points.SettingTwenty organizations participating in the SPI programme in the UK.ParticipantsTwenty principal SPI programme coordinators took part in interviews towards the end of the supported phase of the programme, 12 of which were interviewed again a year later, along with another three replacement programme coordinators, totalling 35 interviewees across the two time points.Main Outcome MeasuresProgramme coordinators' perceptions of facilitating strategies to the sustainability of the collaborative and its gains.ResultsQualitative analysis identified three overarching factors for the sustainability of SPI: (i) using programme improvement methodology and measurement of its outcomes; (ii) organizational strategies to ensure sustainability and (iii) alignment of goals with external requirements. Within these were eight themes identified by the coordinators as helping to sustain the efforts of the SPI programme and its successes.ConclusionsThis study has presented what principle programme coordinators across 20 NHS organizations considered to be the key strategies to sustain their own improvement programme and its successes, during the supported phase of the programme and 1 year on. Recommendations are to consider these practical strategies in order to improve chances of maintaining changes and continuing a quality improvement programme beyond the formal cessation of the intervention.

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