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Purpose: Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) is being widely promoted in healthcare settings to train staff in evidence-based approaches that promote patient safety. It involves a comprehensive curriculum that spells out key principles and actionable tools for a culture change toward patient-safety-focussed teamwork. Activities begin with selected personnel attending TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer Training (MTT) and then organizing and providing TeamSTEPPS training for staff in their organization. The authors conducted interviews with respondents at community hospitals conducting TeamSTEPPS staff training. To structure the interviews, the authors used 11 key questions identified by Weaver et al. in their in-depth team training literature review. The purpose of this paper is to examine approaches taken by community hospital personnel and compare those to the best practices recommended by Weaver et al., Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed 57 staff and administrators at 22 community hospitals sending teams to TeamSTEPPS MTT., Findings: The authors find that training implementation in community hospitals differs significantly from the established, research-based principles for effective team training described in the research literature, which is largely based in academic medical centers., Originality/value: The current findings suggest that several TeamSTEPPS training features could be enhanced in community hospitals including: choosing staff who have the skills to be effective trainers in this train-the-trainer model; emphasizing active learning; and sustaining lessons through on-the-job application, practice and feedback. These principles apply to many training approaches employed in small healthcare organizations.