&NA;Modern health care has been influenced by a number of forces that have increased the level of accountability and performance. Efforts to establish evidenced‐based practice have led to development of guidelines and standards of practice. However, the current state of the art in many fields has not unveiled the levels of research and empirical findings, which establish the “gold standards” of care. This has led to increased demand and stress on the clinician with less mature guidelines available. Such a scenario can lead to a sense of “practice vacuum.” The present article offers the single‐subject design as the best alternative for a clinical infrastructure when confronted with questions of effectiveness and clinical decision making in the absence of sufficient development of standards of care. The article acquaints the reader with design models, strengths for clinical use and the benefits for establishing an ordered and systematic treatment approach.