The Clinical Units model

Putting leadership into practice

The Clinical Units model is how we organise our people within our hospitals.

Most hospitals arrange their staff in functional units led by a manager, with relatively few links between those units - in other words, in silos. When people work in silos, it limits opportunities for learning and professional development. And that's bad for patients.

Rather than rigid pyramidical hierarchies, Clinical Units model resembles a set of interlinked circles. Each Clinical Unit - generally a speciality - has at its core three people: a consultant, a nursing professional, and an administrator. These people work together and make decisions in partnership. Decisions don't trickle down; they radiate outwards across the Unit.

But that's only half the story. Across all Clinical Units in a hospital (and even beyond) people from the same functions talk to each other as a point of process. The senior nurses get together monthly, as do the administrators from each Unit and the Clinical Leads. Great ideas are shared; new ideas are tested. And best practice is remembered, deepening organisational learning.

This model gives us the best of both worlds: the efficiency that stems from a solid base of shared processes, with the patient care that comes from individual customising for the needs of different patients.