Objective Interpersonal violence is an ongoing, vexing public health issue. Communities require comprehensive timely data on violence to plan and implement effective violence prevention strategies. Emergency departments (EDs) can play an important role in violence prevention. EDs treat injuries associated with violent crime, and they are well-positioned to systematically collect information about these injuries, including the location where the injury occurred. The Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention (The Cardiff Model) provides a framework for interdisciplinary data collection and sharing.

Methods This paper uses the Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a framework to present our experiences of implementing the Cardiff Model in several EDs that serve the Milwaukee area, and to detail the processes of data collection, linking and presentation across four different hospital systems.

Results Implementing a city-wide data collection effort that involves multiple hospital systems is challenging. Viewing our findings through the lens of the Diffusion of Innovations theory provides a way to anticipate facilitators and challenges to Cardiff Model implementation in a hospital setting.

Conclusions Facilitators and barriers to Cardiff Model adoption in the ED setting can be understood using the Diffusion of Innovation theory, and barriers can be interrupted through careful planning and continuous communication between partners.