Implementing practice guidelines: easier said than done.

Implementation of practice guidelines is a beguilingly complex activity that requires attention to the task of clinicians, the constraints they face, and the social practice of medicine. Local clinical opinion leaders can accelerate the pace of change by encouraging early adoption and modeling new practices. "Tough love" approaches to guideline adoption have a role in raising the salience of the safe practice. However, successful implementation requires a healthy respect for the challenge of enlisting frontline practitioners in integrating changes into the practice of active clinicians. The implementation of guideline-based practices for aseptic technique in neuraxial analgesia at four Israeli hospitals illustrates the challenges and opportunities associated with changing physician practice.