Clinical process improvement: reduction of pneumothorax and mortality in high-risk preterm infants.

Objective: To develop multidisciplinary clinical process improvement methods using evidence-based medicine to decrease the incidence of pneumothorax in a NICU.

Study Design: All inborn infants <28 weeks' gestation (n=79) served as the historical baseline group. A prospective protocol, using evidence-based medicine and a rapid-cycle, multidisciplinary clinical process improvement method, was designed to measure changes in the incidence of pneumothorax in subsequent infants of similar gestational ages.