| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Clinical and Medical |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | Medical Director |
| Direct reports | General Surgeon, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Urologist, Senior Resident Doctor |
| Experience | 12+ years of surgical practice, including 3 or more years heading a surgical department |
Chief of Surgery job description template
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Job title: Chief of Surgery
Department: Clinical and Medical
Reports to: Medical Director
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Chief of Surgery heads the surgical services of a hospital across general surgery, orthopaedics, urology and the other operating specialties. They own the rules of the operation theatre: who gets OT time, how the surgical safety checklist is used, how complications are reviewed and which surgeons may perform which procedures. They still operate. A good Chief of Surgery raises OT utilisation, keeps infection and return-to-theatre rates low, and settles scheduling fights before they reach management.
Key responsibilities
- Allocate weekly OT sessions to surgical departments based on waiting lists, emergency load and how well each team used its past sessions.
- Enforce the surgical safety checklist, site marking and time-out in every theatre, and audit a sample of cases each month.
- Chair the surgical audit meeting that reviews complications, unplanned returns to OT, surgical site infections and deaths within 30 days of surgery.
- Recommend surgical privileges for new surgeons and for new procedures such as laparoscopic, arthroscopic or robotic surgery, based on training and supervised cases.
- Agree emergency surgical cover with each department so that a surgeon and an anaesthetist are available round the clock for trauma and acute abdomen cases.
- Work with the anaesthesia head and the OT nursing in-charge on pre-anaesthetic check timelines, first-case start times and turnover between cases.
- Set standard rules for surgical consent, including explaining risks in the patient's own language, and check consent quality during audits.
- Review surgical package prices and implant choices with finance and purchase so packages cover real costs without lowering clinical standards.
- Operate on an elective and emergency list of own cases, taking the most complex referrals in the specialty.
- Mentor junior surgeons and residents, and organise hands-on workshops when the hospital adopts a new technique.
Requirements
- MS or DNB in General Surgery or another surgical specialty, with MCh or DrNB for super-specialists
- Valid registration with the National Medical Commission or a State Medical Council
- Fellowship training in minimal access or advanced surgery is an advantage
- 12+ years of surgical practice, including 3 or more years heading a surgical department
KRAs and KPIs for a Chief of Surgery
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| OT utilisation | Allocated OT time used at or above 80 percent across surgical departments each month |
| Surgical safety | Surgical safety checklist fully completed in 100 percent of audited cases |
| Surgical outcomes | Unplanned return to OT within 48 hours below 1 percent of surgeries each quarter |
| Surgical site infection | Infection rate in clean surgeries within the infection control committee target every quarter |
| First case on time | First elective case starts within 15 minutes of schedule on 90 percent of operating days |
| Emergency cover | Zero nights without a named on-call surgeon for each surgical department |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Laparoscopy tower, OT scheduling module of the HIS, Electrosurgical unit, C-arm, Surgical safety checklist, Electronic medical records.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Clinical Director, Medical Director
Interview questions for a Chief of Surgery
- Orthopaedics wants two more OT days a week and general surgery will not give up any. How do you decide?
- How do you audit surgical site infections so that surgeons trust the numbers?
- What would you require before allowing a surgeon to start robotic procedures in your hospital?
- First cases start 40 minutes late on most days. Where would you look for the cause?
- Tell me about a complication in your own practice and what you changed after it.
- How do you deal with a surgeon who skips the time-out when the list is running late?
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What does a chief of surgery do?
A chief of surgery manages the surgical departments of a hospital. The role covers OT time allocation, surgical safety rules, complication reviews, privileges for new surgeons and procedures, and round-the-clock emergency surgical cover. The chief of surgery also operates, usually on the more complex cases in their own specialty.
Who does a chief of surgery report to?
In Indian hospitals the chief of surgery usually reports to the medical director. Where the hospital has a clinical director, surgical quality matters may go through the clinical director, while OT capacity and budgets are agreed with the medical director and the hospital's operations head.
Is a chief of surgery the same as the head of the surgery department?
Not always. The head of the general surgery department leads one specialty. A chief of surgery oversees all operating specialties together, such as general surgery, orthopaedics, urology and ENT, and sets common rules for the operation theatres. Smaller hospitals often give both jobs to one senior surgeon.