Aravind Eye HospitalMaking A Dent In Global Blindness

Introduction:

Aravind Eye Hospital is internationally recognized as an best institution suited

to make not just a dent, but a grand canyon in the world of blindness.

Nearly twenty-four million blind in the world.

One-Third of them are unnecessarily blind.

Aravind Eye Clinic perfected an assembly-line technique of surgery to increase

the productivity.

Thousands of blind poor are operated for free and only 30% of its patients pay

fees.

Makes 35% operating profit.

Treats 2.4 million outpatients and does 2,86,000 cataract surgeries every year.

Beginning with A Dream:

Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy wanted to be a gynecologist after his 3 cousins died in

early childhood.

But as he was going to start his career he fall sick and was bedridden for 2 years with

crippling rheumatoid arthritis.

He recovered from his disease but he couldn’t do the heavy surgical work required to do

for gynecology and he took for ophthalmology.

Dr.V had a dream to eliminate unnecessary blindness in India.

Treating unnecessary blindness became passion for him.

While engaging the treatment of blind people he realized that he was just not restoring

eye sight but extending the lifespan of treated people.

After retiring in 1976 he decided to setup a hospital to treat unnecessary blindness and

this is how a dream Aravind Eye Hospital started. And to support Dr.V his sister and

her husband joint Dr.V

Following The Dream

The trio needed funding to begin this dream project.

They thought that it would not be difficult to raise money for this good cause. But they were mistaken. Nobody helped.

Banks also refused to give them loan. After that they decided not to ask for loan again.

They began with 11 bed hospital in Dr. V’s house and G. Srinivasan mortgage Jewlleryto buy equipments.

In a few years 2 more Doctors joined Dr.V. and the pool of doctors grew to 5.

G. Srinivasan, an engineer, took charge of the construction and the finances.

Following Milestones were achieved:

1. 1977: bulit a building with thirty beds

2. 1978: built a low-c0st hospital with a hundred beds

3. 1980: moved into its present facility at madurai

4. 1982: present facility expanded to 200 beds and 3 operating rooms

5. 1984: free hospital set up with 400 beds and 3 operating rooms

6. 1985: Aravind hospital at Theni set up

7. 1988: Aravind Hospital at Tirunelveli set up for 135 paing 400 free patients

8. 1991: Facility at Madurai expanded to accommodate 280 paying and 1100 free patients.

9. 1992: Aurolab set up

10. 1996: Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology set up.

11. 1997: Aravind, Coimbatore, set up

12. 1999: hostel for PG doctors set up

13. 2001: free hospital expanded to accommodate another 400 patients.

14. 2001: nurses residential qaurters set up

15. 2003: Aravind Pondicherry, set up

16. 2004: Outpatient clinic at Melur Started, now expanded to four outpatient clinics at Thirumangalam, Tuticorin, and Tirupur.

17. 2005: Vision centre serving population of 50,000 piloted, has grown to 30 vision centres at present

18. 2007: New state-of-art manufacturing facility inaugurated, manufacturing intraocular lenses, sutures, blades and pharmaceutical products used in eye care.

19. 2007: Aravind Managed Eye Care Service Division started to manage eye hospitals in other parts of the country.

20. 2007: Dr. V Eye Research Institute, a new research facility started to conduct research in molecular biology, genetic disorders in eyes and proteomic studies.

The Famous Assembly Line:

As Dr. V and his team started conducting cataract surgeries in rural areas by travelling

hundreds of kilometers. But the impact seemed to be very small

Around this time Dr. V went to U.S and learned assembly line operations from

McDonald’s restaurants.

And it made a radical differnce.

An average ophthalmologist operates on 250 to 400 patients a year.

An Aravind ophthalmologist using McDonald’s assembly line technique operates 2000

patients a year.

At Aravind in One operation theatre has 4 operating tables laid side by side and 2

surgeons handle these 4 tables.

And 4 nurses assist the doctors so that other work of doctor’s released and doctor’s can

concentrate more on surgeries.

The Dynamics of Next-Horizon Thinking

Everyone in Aravind strikes about the next horizon.

Aravind Eye Hospital is currently doing2,86,000 surgeries a year and Dr. Aravind

talks about scaling this to 1 million by 2015.

Dr. Nam talks about eradicating diabetic-related blindness in another 10 years despite

of the fact that there are around 42 million diabetics, of which 20% tend to suffer

from diabetics-related blindness.

Dr. V talks about using IT and rural internet connectivity to bring in more patients.

The entire organiztion is obsessed with the next horizon

The ambition now is to reach a billion people.