An effective approach to spreading improvements acknowledges that there are different audiences within the target population. While multiple care providers and other staff are involved in patient care, those that are key to the process being improved must first make the decision to adopt the improvements. These members of the care team are considered the "audience" for initial information about the improvements. For example, to spread medication safety improvements, the key adopter audiences are usually the physician, nurse, and pharmacist since they are the primary persons involved in prescribing, dispensing, and administering medications. Once the key audiences decide to adopt the improvements, the entire care team, including nursing assistants, technicians, unit clerks and others, then need to embrace and carry out the improvements.

In the outpatient setting, the key adopter audience for changes to improve access as well as changes relating to improved care for patients with chronic conditions is often the primary care providers (PCPs). Once PCPs (often the physicians) make the decision to adopt the improvements, other members of the care team, such as the nurse practitioner, physician assistant, nurse, nursing assistant, schedulers and others, are central to actually making the improvements. For example, to successfully apply the methods for advanced access, the scheduler is a key team member since he/she handles incoming requests for appointments and assigns patients to the actual appointment slots.