Aravind Eye Care System

The challenge

The WHO estimates that 45 million people worldwide are blind, 85% of whom suffer from preventable blindness. Developed countries have continued to utilize technological innovation to battle blindness, however, the poor in South Asia and Africa, who are unable to afford such remedies continue to struggle. Despite an extensive system of hospitals and an aggressive program to train more doctors there are more people that are blind in India (9 million) than in any other country in the world. 80% of this blindness is due to cataract, which is almost always curable.

The innovation

The Aravind Eye Hospitals, located at Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, and Theni in the state of Tamil Nadu, is one of the world’s most innovative hospitals, performing over 200,000 eye surgeries a year and seeing over one million outpatients. This accounts for 47% of the surgeries done in the state of Tamil Nadu and 5% of the national total. Over 70% of the patients are treated completely free while the remaining 30% pay based on the choice of facilities and services. Aravind has achieved these statistics by building tremendous efficiencies into the system using all of the tools of modern management that are common in the private sector.