Crossing the quality chasm in neonatal-perinatal medicine.

The "Quality Chasm" exists in neonatal intensive care. Despite years of clinical research in neonatology, therapies continue to be underused, overused, or misused. A key concept in crossing the quality chasm is system redesign. The unpredictability of human factors and the dynamic complexity of the neonatal ICU are not amenable to rigid reductionist control and redesign. Change is best accomplished in this complex adaptive system by use of simple rules: (1) general direction pointing, (2) prohibitions, (3) resource or permission providing. These rules create conditions for purposeful self-organizing behavior, allowing widespread natural experimentation, all focused on generating the desired outcome.