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Objectives To evaluate an innovative approach to recruit 40 hospitals to a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) to improve discharge antibiotic prescribing.Design This study describes the design, implementation and impact of a theory-informed recruitment approach for hospitals participating in the Reducing Overuse of Antibiotics at Discharge (ROAD) Home trial.Setting An inperson meeting of a quality improvement collaborative of acute care hospitals in the state of Michigan.Participants Representatives from acute care hospitals that are part of the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium.Interventions Small group recruitment sessions that combined deliberative participation and credible messengers to recruit hospitals to participate in a cluster RCT on a single date (1 November 2023).Primary and secondary outcomes The primary outcome was the number of hospitals which agreed to participate in the trial. We also assessed participant feedback, effectiveness of recruitment methods and resources required for implementation of this approach.Results We recruited 51 (74%) of 69 eligible hospitals. Survey participants reported: sessions made clear the purpose of the trial (94%, 64/68) and time commitment required (87%, 59/68); agreed deliberative participation was helpful (82%, 56/68) and were ‘very satisfied’ with the session (82%, 56/68). Investigators largely reported credible messengers were a positive influence, though this varied across sessions. Hospital recruitment was time intensive, taking 179.5 total person hours. The recruitment process involved 3 months of preparation for the sessions and 2 months of follow-up prior to closing recruitment.Conclusions We demonstrated the feasibility and impact of a novel approach to recruit hospitals from an existing collaborative to a cluster RCT using the principles of deliberative participation and credible messengers. While the approach was time-consuming, we achieved success at over-recruiting hospitals in a relatively short period of time. Strategies presented here may assist future trial organisers in implementing hospital-based cluster RCTs.Trial registration number The ROAD Home trial is registered on Clinical.Trials.gov ( NCT06106204).