Bespoke Health Consultancy
A board-level clinical governance framework defines how clinical risk, quality and safety information flow from every site up to the board, and how board decisions flow back down. For a UAE healthcare group this means a documented committee structure, defined reporting rhythm, clear KPIs and evidenced assurance that the group's clinical governance system is operating across every DHA- or DoH-licensed facility it owns.
The board — not the operator — is ultimately accountable for group-wide clinical governance.
A working framework has four elements: structure, reporting, KPIs and assurance.
UAE healthcare groups operating across both emirates must reconcile DHA and DoH requirements into a single group standard.
Committee structure
- Board — ultimate accountability, quarterly clinical governance report - Clinical Governance Committee (Group) — chaired by Group Medical Director, meets monthly - Site Clinical Governance Committees — one per licensed facility, chaired by site MD - Incident Review Panel — convenes on serious events within 72 hours
Reporting rhythm
Site → Group monthly, Group → Board quarterly. Serious incidents escalate within 24 hours, bypassing rhythm. Regulator correspondence (DHA, DoH) escalates immediately.
Group clinical KPIs
A minimum board-visible KPI set: sentinel events, never events, complaints per 1,000 encounters, incident closure rate, mandatory training compliance, clinical audit completion rate, DHA/DoH KPI submission timeliness, and patient experience score (PXS for Abu Dhabi sites).
Assurance model
Assurance is not the same as reporting. The board needs independent assurance that what site MDs report is true. This is typically delivered through internal clinical audit, external periodic review, or a continuous audit platform that scores every site to the same standard.
Reconciling DHA and DoH into one group standard
Where a group operates in both emirates, adopt the more stringent of the two on each domain and codify it as the group standard. This simplifies operations and eliminates the risk of an Abu Dhabi site being managed to a lower bar than the group's Dubai sites, or vice versa.