The presentation in detail analyses the story of Arvind eye care hospital which is considered to be one of the most successful non-profit hospitals all around the world.

1. Arvind Eye Care Hospital
ANSHIKA GUPTA || DIBESH KUMAR || GAURAB MONDAL|| HARSH KUMAR || KANIKA GUPTA || MASOOM MODH || MAULIK CHAUDHAR

2. If McDonald’s can sell billions of bu
rger and Coca-Cola can sell billions o
f soda, why cant I sell millions of sig
ht-restoring operations?
- Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy

3. Introduction
• Established in 1976 by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy.
• Started for the benefit of those people who could not afford a cataract eye
surgery.
• The business model was based on that of McDonald’s and inspiration was
from Shri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi.
• From Shri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi, “Dr. V” adopted principles which
inculcated the culture of hard work in the people working there.
• From McDonald’s, Dr. Venkataswamy adopted efficiency and standardization
• Vision to serve all at an affordable price
• No compromise over quality of service

4. Timeline
1978
1977
1976
20 Bed Hospital
Goal- Providing Quality
eye
care at reasonable cost
70 Bed Free Hospital
Goal- Providing poor
with free eye care
30 Bed
Goal- To accommodate
patients after surgery 1981 Main
Hospital
250 Beds
• 80,000 sq. feet space
• 4 Major O.T.
Specialty Clinics
• Cornea Glaucoma
• Squint Corrections
• Diabetic Retinopathy
• Paediatric Ophthalmology
Journey from 1976 to 1981

5. Early Years
• Mission of eliminating needless blindness in the world
• Not interested in competition
• Till mid 1990 there was little competitive pressure as there were few hospitals
providing quality eye care.
• Aravind eye care set up LAICO (Lions Aravind Institute of Community
Ophthalmology) to share knowledge of eye care with other hospital
• Hiring and retaining doctors was a challenge.
• Developed a loyalty by recruiting young girls from village who needed job and
imparting essential skills to take care of all support system in hospitals.

6. Challenges faced
• Very low volume of patient turnout in the initial
days, mainly due to lack of awareness of the
services which were being provided.
• Hiring good doctors and retaining them.
• Imported Intraocular lenses (IOL) were very
expensive (US $200 each) ,resulting in
increased operational cost.
• Very little support from central or state
government
• Faced difficulties in raising capital during start-
up years
• Maintaining high quality of treatment was a
challenge in the initial years

7. Business Model
• Self-funding healthcare delivery model
• free-of-cost or at cost, high-quality service for 50-60% of its patients who are
poor or ‘non-paying’ by using the profits generated from the 40-50% of the
paying patients
• Same quality of service across both paying and non-paying patients
 Singular Vision - Eliminating blindness through cataract surgery
 Hybrid Business Model - Use the cash-flows from paying patients to cross
subsidize services for the needy. The ability to develop high-end ophthalmic
care helped them attract and retain qualified doctors.

8. Operating Model
 High volume, high quality and low cost business model – cost here could be
as low as US$50 while in the US, it is in the range of US$3,000
• Fixed costs are reduced through scale and operational efficiency
• Developed standardized processes for key operations, so as to ensure
consistent and efficient delivery
 OPD – 6,000 outpatients in hospital, 1500 in outreach camps per day
 Surgeries – Aravind doctor performs >2000 surgeries in a day, Assembly line approach to surgery
 Cross Training the workforce – Large staffs of nurses and technicians, to reduce costs - Aravind
recruits and trains women from local communities and certifies them as technicians (these women
make up 60% of Aravind’s workforce)
 In-house manufacturing - Aravind set up a manufacturing facility which makes intraocular lens called Aurolab
in 1992. The price of the lens has been driven down to less than US$10 (90% reduction!)

9. Emerging Challenges
• Expectation of patients has increased, which is forcing
Aravind to innovate more and improve it’s service offerings
• Finding and collaborating with likeminded partners to raise
funding and accelerate the provision of eye care
• Challenge in leadership succession planning to maintain
the unique culture of the organization
• Getting people who are motivated towards the working
philosophy of the organization
• Large scale programs are needed to increase awareness
regarding the new forms of eye diseases which have
started to occur because of change in human life-style

10. Differentiation
• Dr. V’s Leadership
• Culture of Southern India
• Efficiency of the surgeons & a nurse staff
• Ability to Network and tie up with like minded institution like Sight Savers in USA
etc.
• Continuous innovation
– Having tasted success in IOLs, Aurolab has gone on to make inexpensive
sutures, post operative drugs for eye-care, pharma products, ophthalmic
blades, and other high-cost consumables, with the sole purpose of driving
down costs and thus making them more affordable.
• Established as a trust, therefore, less likely to have divisive forces as happens
from time to time in family-run organizations

11. Thank You