THE ARAVIND EYE

HOSPITAL, MADURAI, INDIA

: IN SERVICE FOR SIGHT

BLINDNESS PROBLEM IN INDIA

1992

30 MILLION PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD

12 MILLION PEOPLE IN INDIA

95% DUE TO CATARACT RELATED

2000

18.7 MILLION BLIND PEOPLE

9.7 MILLION ARE RELATED TO CATARACT

2010-2020

24.1 MILLION BY 2010

31.6 MILLION BY 2020

ARVIND EYE HOSPITAL

FOUNDED BY DR.G.VENKATASWAMY IN 1976

20 BED HOSPITALS AND 3 DOCTORS
70 BEDS IN 1978
250 BEDS IN 1981
1992
240 HOSPITAL STAFFS, 30 DOCTORS, 120 NURSES, 60 ADMIN
PERSONNEL, 30 OTHERS

Service Sequence at Arvind Eye

Hospital
Registration

Vision
Recording

Preliminary
Examinatio
n

Refraction
Test

Tear Duct
function

Testing of
Tension

Final
Examination

600 Beds

Madurai

400 Beds

T-veni

100 Beds

Thoni

400 Beds

Coimbatore

TILL 1992, 3.65 MILLION PATIENTS AND 335000 CATARACT OPERATIONS ARE DONE
90% OF FUNDS ARE SELF GENERATED AND REST COMES FROM RCSB(U.K) AND SEVA
(USA)
INTRAOCULAR LENS
$30 PER PIECE WHILE IMPORTING
NOW `200 WHICH WILL REDUCE TO ` 100 LATER
AURO LAB: 60000 LENS/YEAR
PROBLEM
o MORE THAN FULL CAPACITY ON MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY
o SLACK ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

Main Hospital
Independent functioning
ICCE surgery cost Rs 500 to Rs 1000
ECCE surgery cost Rs 1500 to Rs 2500
Expenses include surgery, stay, medicines etc
Patients guided at each step by several support staf
Dr. Venkataswamy also involved in guiding and support
Experienced doctors and support staf
Hassle free check ups, diagnosis and surgery

Free Hospital
Completely free
Mostly ICCE surgeries
ECCE if medically recommended
Dealt with more patients
Doctors and staf experienced and compassionate
Patients, post-surgery, provided aphakic glasses
Complications, if any, monitored carefully
People from same communities placed together

Eye Camp
Multiple camps organized in several areas in Tamil Nadu
Conducted with help of local community along with a local
sponsor
Sponsor pays for publicity, food and transportation of
patients
Hospital pays for tests, surgery and medicines
Support staf included hospital employees, college students
and other volunteers

Constraints in Turning up for examination

Causes for Not Turning
Up

Percentage

Remedies being used

Still have vision, however

diminished

26

Camps at peoples reach

Cannot aford food and

transportation

25

Camp sponsored

Cannot leave family

13
Patients transported in Groups
supported by volunteers

Fear of surgery

11

No one to accompany

10

Family opposition

How to scale up the Model

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

KEY SUCCESS DETERMINANTS

OPTIMUM USE OF SURGEONS TIME

EFFICIENT SURGEONS
EFFICIENT RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING OF
NURSING STAFF
MAINTAINING HIGH QUALITY STANDARDS
ORGANIZING RURAL CAMPS TO ATTRACT VOLUMES
OF PATIENTS
IN HOUSE MANUFACTURE OF IOL

Recommendations
Scale up AuroLab and manufacture IOLs and sell
them to competing eye hospitals like LV Prasad
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 hospital
Generate an eye Bank on full scale
Use donations like LVP and make it a central part
of your cash flows

Franchise Aravind Hospitals

The revenue model must first ensure that
the cost of capital at least must be
recovered
Franchisee rights may be provided through
competitive bidding to interested parties in
neighbouring states
Franchisees financial ability must be
assessed to gauge his ability to support a
free hospital. Ideals must match too.
New hospitals must be mentored by senior
ophthalmologists to ensure quality in
services provided.