Aravind Eye Care

Section A
Reg No. 0061/52 0070/52

Key success determinants

Optimum use of surgeons time

Efficient surgeons
Efficient recruitment and training of nursing staf
Maintaining high quality standards
Organizing rural camps to attract volumes of patients
In house manufacture of IOL

Blindness in India
Scenario of Blindness in India
Population

1250 Million

Blindness

30 million blind eyes (2 million being added

annually)

Main Cause

Cataract (75-80%) uniformly distributed

Ophthalmolo 8000 performing 1.2 million Cataract

gist
Operations/year
Eye Hospital

42,200

Medical R
Two-third skewed to the Urban areas where
and
less
than one third
of the nations population
Government
Initiatives
Infrastructur lived
District
Hospitals 425 ofering free eye care and cataract
e
Surgery
Revenue
Allocated

Rs. 60 Million ($2milliion) for blindness

prevention

Challenges

1. Proper Infrastructure
2. State of Art Equipment
3. Training Personnel

VISION
To Mass Market Cataract Surgery on a
Global
perspective
Ofer quality eye care at reasonable cost
Provide services to rich and poor alike
Dr. G.
Venkataswamy
DREAM- Eradication of Needless
Blindness
by creating a private, non profit
eye
hospital that would provide quality
eye care

High Quality.
+ Large
Volume =
Low Cost
Programme
planning for
standardize
d approach

Compassi
onate
Capitalis
m

People
Capacity to
Pay

Cost
Recove
ry
Principl
es

Accountabi
lity

Multi-Tiered
Pricing

Changing
the Mindset
and
Practices of
Surgeons

Principles of Cost Recover

Operations
Use operations management techniques

to spread out traffic to the whole day

rather than through the morning only
Manage the 3 most busy days, use
token/prior-appointment system. Manage
the slack.
Only critical tasks should be done by
senior surgeons, routine tasks can be
done by junior residents. Bring down the
time per surgery from 10 minutes to 5-8
minutes per surgery.

Deeper Analysis into the

Aravind Model
Economies of scale bring cost advantages
Model can be replicated wherever minimum customization

is required and standardization of processes is possible

Recruit some nurses out of nursing colleges to save on
training costs and get ready-to-go nurses
Use avenues other than eye camps to generate revenue
streams
Doctors work 60 hours a week instead of 30

Financial Viability
Through a unique fee system & effective management, Aravind
provides free eye care to 2/3 of its patients.
For each $1 spent, $1.60 is earned

Paying 35%

Free Camp 47%

Subsidized 18%

FREE HOSPITAL and EYE CAMPS :

MADURAI
CHALLENGES AND ISSUES CONCERNED
The outpatient facilities at the free hospital were not well organized
There was a temporary shelter at the free hospitals
entrance
Those who came for a return Visit were directed to different
lines
Less administrative assistants helping patients and guiding
them sequential flow
Operating theatre appeared to be more crowded and
cramped
Only 1 or the other operating tables was equipped with an
operating Microscope
Free hospital did not have beds in which to recuperate
and recover
Need of Organized Camp, Need to Create Propaganda, and
Organizing of Logistics
Requirement of consistent set of procedures and common

INITIATIVES FREE HOSPITAL and EYE CAMPS :

MADURAI
INITIATIVES
The Government of India launched a cataract blindness
control programme with World Bank funding and ofered a
subsidy for the camp patients. In stages, the number of beds
increased to the present 1468 beds (1200 free and 268
paying) in the hospital at Madurai.
Multiple "camps" were conducted every week, to propagate
more and more about the services. Skilled and technically
qualified personnel were brought in solve out these
issues.
The use of mats enabled better utilization of floor space about
30 patients could be accommodated in one room.
Establishment of complete Arvind Eye care system,
helped in Eliminating the Major Issues Concerned, to
provide quality eye care, Keeping in view the
requirements of every patient, so as to instill a

INITIATIVES FREE HOSPITAL and EYE CAMPS :

MADURAI

INITIATIVES
The Arvind Eye Hospital, had build up an excellent IT
system that kept track of all the patients. The system
generated daily schedules taking into account the load on
that day, patients preferences for doctors, and the pending
work. This enabled the hospital administration to keep track of
the workload in diferent units.
The Aravind management kept a very close track of the
intra-operative as well
as post-operative complication rates. The major
complications were very much under control and were
considered highly satisfactory, according to the doctors
at Aravind.

Future Plans

Scale up AuroLab and manufacture IOLs and sell

them to competing eye hospitals like LV Prasada
in Hyderabad.
Increase community out reach, use NGO
networks as well
Increase the fee on paid services to cover a
larger base of the free service hosital
Generate an eye Bank on full scale
Use donations like LVP and make it a central part
of your cash flows