| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Clinical and Medical |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | Head of Department (Clinical) |
| Direct reports | Senior Resident Doctor, Junior Resident Doctor |
| Experience | 6 to 10 years after postgraduation, including consultant or assistant professor experience |
Unit Head (Clinical) job description template
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Job title: Unit Head (Clinical)
Department: Clinical and Medical
Reports to: Head of Department (Clinical)
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Unit Head leads one clinical unit within a department, for example Medicine Unit II or Surgery Unit I in a teaching hospital. The unit has its own beds, admission days, OPD days and a team of residents. The Unit Head decides treatment plans on rounds, supervises residents, signs off discharges and answers for the unit's outcomes to the Head of Department. A good Unit Head runs tight rounds, teaches at the bedside and keeps beds moving on admission days.
Key responsibilities
- Lead the morning round of all unit inpatients, confirm diagnoses and treatment plans, and set the day's tasks for each resident.
- Take charge on the unit's admission day, deciding which emergency and OPD patients get beds and which are referred elsewhere.
- Run the unit's OPD days, see new and complex follow-up patients, and review cases worked up by residents.
- Check and sign discharge summaries, death summaries and referral letters prepared by residents before they are issued.
- Supervise procedures done by residents, and step in personally for difficult or high-risk cases.
- Present the unit's deaths and complications at the department audit with the facts and the lessons drawn from them.
- Counsel families on diagnosis, prognosis and expected costs, and record each conversation in the case file.
- Allocate residents between wards, OPD and emergency on the unit's days, and cover gaps caused by leave or examinations.
- Teach residents and interns at the bedside, hold case presentations and check their logbooks.
- Report bed occupancy, long-stay cases and pending investigations to the HOD every week.
Requirements
- MD, MS or DNB in the specialty
- Valid registration with the National Medical Commission or a State Medical Council
- A faculty post such as associate professor is common for unit heads in medical colleges
- 6 to 10 years after postgraduation, including consultant or assistant professor experience
KRAs and KPIs for a Unit Head (Clinical)
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 |
|---|---|
| Bed turnover | Unit average length of stay within the department target, with no unexplained stay beyond 10 days |
| Discharge quality | Discharge summaries signed and handed over before the patient leaves in 100 percent of discharges |
| Unit outcomes | Every death and complication reviewed within 7 days and presented at the monthly audit |
| Admission day flow | No patient waits more than 4 hours in emergency for a unit bed on admission days |
| Resident supervision | Weekly logbook review for every resident and all unit teaching sessions held as scheduled |
| Family communication | Family counselling recorded within 24 hours of admission for every critically ill patient |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Electronic medical records, Hospital information system (HIS), Bedside monitors and ECG machine, Point-of-care ultrasound, Ward census and bed board.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Head of Department (Clinical), Clinical Director
Interview questions for a Unit Head (Clinical)
- It is your unit's admission day and only three beds are free. How do you decide who gets them?
- How do you finish a ward round of 40 patients in two hours without missing anything important?
- A resident gave the wrong dose of a drug overnight. How do you handle it with the resident and the family?
- How do you teach residents who are preparing for exams and still have heavy ward work?
- What do you check before you sign a death summary?
- When would you move a long-stay patient to step-down care or home care?
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What is a unit head in a hospital?
A unit head is the senior consultant in charge of one clinical unit of a department. Large departments in teaching hospitals are split into units, each with its own beds, OPD days, admission days and residents. The unit head leads rounds, takes treatment decisions, supervises residents and answers for the unit's outcomes.
Who does a unit head report to?
A unit head reports to the head of the department. In medical colleges the head of department also coordinates teaching and examinations for all units, so the unit head follows the department's protocols and academic calendar while running daily clinical work in the unit.
What is the difference between a unit head and a senior resident?
A senior resident has finished MD, MS or DNB and works for a fixed tenure under supervision, handling ward work, procedures and emergencies. The unit head is the consultant who supervises the senior resident, takes final treatment decisions and signs off discharges and death summaries.