5) Description of health product/service offering: Aravind Eye Hospitals address the issue of Blindness in general and elimination of needless blindness in particular. The entire population group is our primary beneficiary as eye problem affects all categories in the society like rich and poor, men and women, young and old, rural and urban, etc.. We have introduced an outreach model which is very uniques in the sense of reaching the unreached and also a sustainable model by partnering with the community. Through this we are able to reach to each and every needy person in the community and mostly the poor and disadvantaged like women and children.

6) Description of innovation: The delivery model is very unique. First we partner with the community members to organise outreach programmes. And when we do outreach programmes, we focus on quality and comprehensiveness of the service we offer. We screen the patients and if they need surgery we bring them to our hospital and do the surgery and drop them back at their houses. In case they need a spectacle, that is offered at the site in 20 minutes time. So technology have been innovated to deliver that.

By doing this we reduce the cost of getting the services by the poor and needy.

7) Operational model: We focus on outreach to serve more and more needy and disadvantaged population. We have a strong community outreach model in place which is of quality delivery model and also sustainable.

8) Human resources: Almost half of the organisations workforce are geared towards outreach and focusing on needy and disadvantaged group. In that we have recruited very few professionals and most of them are hired from the community and trained and developed to provide the quality service

9) Key operational partnerships: The partnerships are with community members, with government for subsidising some cost of surgery, with NGOs in the community to support some organising activities, With factories and industries for checking the eye of the workers and their families.

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: Yes

          • How do you assure affordability?: For the Poor and disadvantaged group we don't charge any fees.

But at the same time because of good quality and compassionate service, rich class of the same community pay for the services. Hence we follow a mechanism of cross-subsidy to maintain our services with out any much outside funding.

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: 100

          • Other funding sources: We are financially self sustainable. Even over a period of high volume work, with the principle of Economies of scale we are making surplus and the surplus is used to expand the services to the needy regions and also to make innovative models like vision centres to provide much comfortable access to the poor, needy and marginalised.

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: We are financially sustainable.

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 2500000

          • Clients in the past year: 247,235 surg

          • Percentage of low-income clients: 60%

          • Impact: Economic independence Social independence Returning back to work This process of capacity building need to be done at a larger scale in many locations and with many organisations. So that the existing eye care service providers enhance their level of services and as a result the needy and unreached receive the services. This will help in people not remaining blind needlessly. This may result in reducing the unproductive days for the poor and as a result sustained economic growth can be achieved among the poor and marginalised.

          • Overall "market": The potential for this service and this model of service is there in all developing countries of the world. There are demand from Asia, Africa and Latin American countries to follow our model. In a quantification term the work which is currently done in eye care need to increase 10 times to control the problem of needless blindness in AFRICA and ASIA.

Even the general Health System/Health Sector of any developing country can benefit from this model by understanding and replicating the principles behind the model.

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: We are expanding through various ways: 1. Setting up managed hospitals in other parts of the country where there is a need for service 2. Also by capacity building of organisations in other regions and countries of the world.

13) Policy change: Accepting the informal models of HR development to serve the population than puting restrictions on HR degrees and diplomas.

14) Origin of the initiative: Dr. Venkataswamy (“Dr. V”) and his team have turned what started out as an 11-bed eye clinic in an old temple-city into one of the largest and most productive eye care facilities in the world. Taking its services to the doorstep of rural India, the Aravind Eye Care System has become self-sustaining, treating over 1.4 million patients each year, two-thirds of them for free. It is an international resource and training center that is revolutionizing hundreds of eye care programs in developing countries. With less than 1% of the country's ophthalmic manpower, Aravind performs about 5% of all cataract surgeries in India. Since its inception, Aravind has performed more than 2 million surgeries and handled over 16 million outpatients. Aravind has pioneered a sustainable model that follows the principle that large volume, high quality services result in low-cost and self sustainability. By linking higher levels of payment for wealthier patients to lesser charges for the poor, it is fully sustainable. This has been achieved without any deficiency in the quality of care the poor receive. As a result of the unique fee system and effective management, Aravind is able to provide free and subsidized eye care to two-thirds of its patients.

Contact Information:
Keerti  Pradhan
Senior Faculty
LAICO-Aravind Eye Care System
(NGO)
LAICO-ARAVIND EYE HOSPITAL, 1-ANNA NAGAR, MADURAI
India
Tel: +91-452-4356500
Fax: +91-452-2530984
Email: keerti@aravind.org
Website: www.aravind.org

Supporting Documents:
2005AnnualReport.pdf
AcesOnCRSToday.pdf