In the Netherlands, the High and Intensive Care (HIC) model has been developed as a national approach to improve quality of care of acute psychiatric admission wards and to reduce coercion. To support the implementation of this approach throughout the Netherlands, a Community of Practice (CoP) was created consisting of auditors from participating institutions. Audits served as an important vehicle to activate the CoP, and stimulated the implementation of HIC. The CoPs stimulated quality improvement and reduction of coercive measures. Moreover, audit results show that wards that obtain a higher audit score use less coercion than lower scoring wards. The findings may help others in creating a CoP when it comes to the implementation of best practices and improving healthcare: lessons learned and perceived effects of the CoP will be presented.