The Aravind Eye Care System
The Aravind Eye Care System was established by Dr. Govindappa in 1976. The organisation is today one of the largest eye hospitals in the world. The hospital was built mainly to treat cataracts that contribute to loss of sight; today it continues to serve the same purpose and influence many other eye hospitals globally. Dr. Govindappa was motivated to start this hospital because India had no clinics to care for those many with eye problems (Karmali 2013).
The First Hospital in Madurai
The first hospital was established in Madurai with only twenty beds, six of which were for the patients who could not afford to pay hospital bills, Aravind designed a model which is currently used by many eye hospitals as efforts to eradicate the blindness issue. He also put in place the principle of McDonaldization – a process that was meant to deliver services universally (Mahajan 2015).
Expansion of Organisational Procedures
Expansion of organisational procedures that are concurrent with the operation of the institution and financial support contributed to the success of Dr. Govindappa in creating quality output and services to patients.
The Assistance of the Management Team
Initially, Dr. Govindappa was unable to raise funds to cater for indigent patients. With the assistance of the management team, his dream was realised, and in the initial years, the team provided services for those who could afford. The fusion scheme of putting together specialty health centres and cataract cure began taking effect. His first planned move for accomplishment was based on the establishment’s motivation for dealing with impaired vision caused by cataract. The decision was based on the fact that cataract was the primary cause of sightlessness in India. Aravind reached out to the vast rural populations. He started as a Refraction Camp facility program that offered recommended spectacles to patients. The camp also incorporated treatment of diabetic retinopathy, an eye problem caused by diabetes. As much as the program included the abovementioned diseases, Aravind remained fixated on cataract and patients who required extended treatment were given other resolutions, within hours or days (Naldoo 2015).
The Hybrid Business Model
The second strategy was a hybrid business model. The model was meant to attain a measure of processes that corresponded to the standard of the test. Money was required to cater for the poor majority. Through the hybrid model, which involved the business of remunerating clients who wanted specified services, the team of doctors realised that there were many profits, comprising highly produced income. Collection of revenues was contrary to the option of providing a particular service to the needy patients. Eye screening camps were erected for the resolve of getting through to the poor rural inhabitants, while those who required surgery were transported to the infirmary. Infirmary offered extra services to patients who needed more attention due to their eye condition. The fields, raised by facility groups, remedial crews, and public frontrunners, examined several people on a day-to-day basis (Rangan and Thulasiraj 2007, p.43). Medical equipment and the staff were from Aravind, whereas food and mobilisation of those meant for surgery were done by communal cohorts, indigenous humanitarians, and benevolent establishments. Patients in need of operation were taken to the sanatorium by bus the next day so that they could be operated quickly. Paying patients contributed around forty percent and were given different services both in and out-patient. The paying segment is essential because; the returns made promoted the care centre’s major undertaking. The unusual reaction was enhanced due to the abundant returns of paying patients, and this motivated the enthusiasm to carry on with the self-restraint essential to uphold excellent criterions. The reaction also contributed much to the success of handling disadvantaged patients who could not manage to pay for treatment (Dr. Chaudhary, Dr. Modi and Dr. Reddy 2012, p.11).
The Standard Assembly Line Operating System
A challenge arose regarding structuring the capability to provide for the significant sum of cataract surgeries required, with few ophthalmologists available. Aravind thus developed a third plan of designing a standard assembly line operating system that would not concede on the care value. This structure was intended to produce reasonable, highly significant yields if the modules going in were also valuable and inexpensive. Patients were prepared for surgery in groups, and anaesthesia was placed by assistants before a surgical procedure. Every cubicle for the process had up to three working tables, excluding those used for complex surgeries. This was meant to make use of the OT backup team proficiently. Numerous apparatuses were made available at each operating bench, and together with the supporting workforce, time was saved amid surgeries. Similar services are still carried out during casualty inspections whereby, qualified support group executes all the regularly problem-solving processes. Eye doctors carry out only those jobs that are more complicated and necessitate skilled judgments, such as surgical treatment or analysis. The move leads to high-quality products and decreases charges of care. Other health practitioners in the centers help the patient in getting ready for an eye operation. Also, they supervise the patient through recuperation period which boosts the effectiveness of Aravind (Anon 2011, p. 1). An Aravind ophthalmologist could carry out up to two thousand medicines annually unlike other doctors who could do less. Aravind’s price of cataract surgery was around eighteen dollars for every individual thus increasing the number patients flooding there (Krishan 2015).
Vertical Incorporation of Significant Industrious Efforts
The fourth strategy that enabled Aravind to boost its efficiency is the vertical incorporation of significant industrious efforts. Vital price rudiments are workforce and the precarious modules in the surgery. Aravind’s model was produced to leverage the doctor’s time by providing them with juniors with useful skills. These assistants were in large numbers thus necessitated Aravind to generate its private source. With the development of clinical apparatus and knowhow, there was an enormous quality breach between the paying patients and the deprived ones, since the hospital did not have the intra-ocular lens; a crucial element in the surgery (Rangan 1993, p. 22). Aravind resolved to valiant modernisations and the improvements resulted in a remarkable achievement including fabrication of Intra Ocular lens and nursing staff. Yearly, females between eighteen and twenty three years are picked to go through free teaching at Aravind that takes two years. Afterwards, they get employed and the enrolment force comes from the provision region of the hospitals all over the five localities it extends. The training was aimed at giving skills to the people so that they can be able to prevent and manage eye condition issues in future. Unpaid for accommodation is also offered to these learners and stress on emerging services in ophthalmic techniques given. The learners are educated too on how to deliver services in an empathetic, patient-focused manner (Manikutty and Vohra 2004, p. 16).
An Improvement in the Intra-Ocular Lens
Another improvement, in the sector of the intra-ocular lens. The commonly used technique was extra-capsular surgery, and Aravind was incapable of affording IOL. American producers of this product offered some to Aravind. Only the affluent patients could meet its expense thus Dr. Govindappa with his counterparts figured a solution. About the requirement of these lenses, one David Green of U.S started a procedure of knowledge acquirement that ensued an interior, industrial volume under the patronages of a self-governing benevolent organisation called Aurolab; the industry produced and continued to provide significant classy lenses at a reasonably priced fee that would ensure that all the patients of different classes could afford them (Mishra 2014).
An Organised, Enthused, Team Spirited, and Self-Controlled Workforce
Final strategy was creating an organised, enthused, team spirited and self-controlled workforce. Aravind has always capitalised its functional spare in gaining advanced skill and paraphernalia, and keeping outlays to the effectual lowest. Human resources however are what has been keeping the system on toes due to a large number of poverty-stricken patients. This encompasses clinicians and caregivers. Aravind has engrained utilitarian devices that play the inspirational role to its workforce. Doctors are funded in study undertakings that involve teachings in incision practices. Aravind has applied the belief in commerce, which the amenity supplier’s wellbeing is the chief precursor of the consumer’s happiness. Aravind’s model was a case of knowledge in practice which resulted in the primary organisation group being in comprehensive accord with its bearing. Dr. Govindappa was the foremost designer and guardian of its undertaking. As the policy was fashioned unanimously, every associate took on significant accountability for a facet of it. Dr. Govindappa together with her spouse provided guidance with reverence to cataract operation, and it progresses. Dr. Namperumalsamy was involved in the training of medics and linkages to leading study and inventions organisations. Mr. Srinivasan was concerned with filling in the omission for development and preservation of physical plant. The team spirit exercised by all these workforces enabled them to achieve the organisation’s goal of helping the needy individuals in society. The spirit will as well ensure that the rate of eye diseases among the lower class in the society is significantly reduced through the early diagnosis and treatment. Most of their meetings and deliberations were away from the work setting, and each had to understand each other’s viewpoints (Kumar 2016).
Conclusion
As discussed above, Aravind attained realisation by practical use of its labour force putting into effect many modernisations in the healthcare division. Cost friendly and added value services were and still are delivered even in the most interior regions. The services have helped in treating eyes in interior areas where most people could not get eye services. The rate of cataract which was termed as the most widely spread cause of the eye problem was significantly reduced. Methods and interventions used in the industry are applied in the healthcare business (Royal College of Ophthalmology 2012). An organisation that is ready to support the crowds with quality products and facilities is guaranteed to produce returns and profits, and above all, retain its customers by earning their trust and attract even more. Aravind Eye Hospital has been able to increase efficiency in services offered through combination of different strategies aimed at improving services in different localities where people could not afford to get eye treatment.
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