Clinical Practice Improvement (CPI) is a process designed to develop analytically based protocols for achieving best outcomes at the least necessary cost. Originally developed and used at Intermountain Health Care, Inc., (Salt Lake City), CPI is now being introduced in many other medical practice settings. CPI’s premise is that it allows caregivers to make decisions at the local level about optimal care on the basis of hard, objective, statistical evidence gathered in the routine, everyday practice of medicine.

Steven Berman interviewed Dr. Horn, senior scientist at Intermountain, about CPI and other issues and methods in quality improvement, in March 1995.

A sample CPI study, on the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers by protocol, can be found on pp. 306-308.