A circular organization chart promotes a hospital-wide focus on teams

Our Lady of the Way Hospital, like most hospitals in the late 1980s and early 1990s, exemplified the bureaucratic organization represented by the traditional 'line and box organization chart.' Additionally, as in most small hospitals, the CEO of Our Lady of the Way Hospital--a 39-bed, JCAHO accredited, general, acute care hospital in Martin, Kentucky--had direct management responsibility for several functional departments. In 1992, administration replaced the traditional, hierarchical organization chart with a circular structure that reflected its increased reliance on team processes throughout the organization. The new structure also significantly reduced the number of reporting assignments to the CEO. This article describes the hospital's transition to a team-based organization, illustrates the application of a circular organization chart, and assesses its value and limitations.
A circular organization chart can be used effectively to promote team-based organization in a hospital. The circular organization plan allows for integration of all hospital employees and encourages managers to increase leadership within their department. One hospital used this approach to implement its mission of redesigned services, improved quality and integrated services, and a focus on health-care continuum. The circular structure is limited in its ability to create distinct reporting relationships between administration and department managers.
The traditional organization chart has no customer focal point. All communications must be channeled through upper-level management where managers acting in a customer relations capacity refer complex problems through the [...]