Alternate Health Care: Aravind Model
Saturday April 25, 2009 , 2 min Read
SECTOR : SERVICES-HOSPITAL
ORGANIZATION : ARAVIND EYE HOSPITAL
MAN BEHIND THE IDEA : Thulasiraj Ravilla
SYNOPSIS : Given the magnitude of blindness and the challenges faced in a developing country, the Government alone cannot meet the health needs of all. Realizing this predicament, Dr. Venkataswamy wanted to establish an alternate health care model that would supplement the efforts of the Government and also be self-supporting.
Hence, upon his retirement in 1976, he established the GOVEL Trust to initiate eye care work.
Aravind has grown from an obscure clinic in southern India to the largest eye care facility in the world. The Aravind Eye Care System is the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world, every year dealing with an astonishing 2.4 million outpatients and conducting eye surgery on more than 285,000 people at its five hospitals in southern India. Its model is so effective that it has been copied by around 250 eye care hospitals across the globe. Masterstroke was to take philanthropic idealism and turn it into a self-sustaining business by following some of the concepts and principles that underpin the leading fast food chains. Why not, ran the logic, create an eye care delivery mechanism that offers the same levels of consistency and efficiency that McDonald's applies to churning out burgers?
