

“ Celebrating Nearly 40 Years of Service.” “ A Hospital Network With a Vision.” The New York Times Fixes Blog, January 16, 2013. “ The Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India: In Service for Sight.” Harvard Business School Case 593-098 (April 1993). River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing, 2004. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits.

“Eleventh Five Year Plan: 2007-2012.” Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008. Planning Commission, Government of India. “Cataract surgery at Aravind Eye Hospitals: 1988–2008.” Community Eye Health Journal 21, no. “Current estimates of blindness in India.”īritish Journal of Ophthalmology 89, no. Researched and written by Consultant Andrew Flamang of The Bridgespan Group, based on Bridgespan interviews with Sasipriya Karumanchi, faculty at LAICO/Aravind Eye Hospital and RN Mohanty, CEO of Sightsavers India, as well as selected secondary sources. The New York Times reported that these centers, now numbering more than 50, boosted market penetration to almost 30 percent within a single year. After a study showed that the camps still reached only 7 percent of villagers in some rural areas, Aravind accessed small grants to help build Vision Centres, telemedicine-enabled storefronts, with normal business hours and fees of about 30 cents per patient. The supporter’s community reputation is key to the success of the camp. The formula sees a local supporter, often a well-known businessperson or local charitable group, pay for the incidentals of the camp, in addition to organizing and publicizing it. Drive (rather than assume): Aravind’s philanthropically supported “vision camps”-periodic screenings held in rural villages-generated a flow of new patients, particularly those from the poorest backgrounds.

These innovations helped drive costs to rock bottom, bolstering sustainability. Aravind’s manufacturing facility for intraocular lenses, and microsurgery trainings to help physicians implant them, was financed in large part by Sightsavers International.
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Paying patients more than offset the cost of free and reduced-cost patients, in part because of the high quality, yet radically efficient surgical model.

Modest eyes indian plus#
Plus it still maintained the dignity of patients while continuing to deliver world-class surgical quality. Aravind's business model worked because it developed a radically efficient surgical model, with each surgeon performing an average of 2,000 surgeries per year, compared to 300 annually elsewhere in India. See below for 15 stories of social movements that defied the odds and learn how philanthropy played a role in achieving their life-changing results.įrom the start, Aravind served a majority of its patients free of charge (they call it “zero price,” treating all patients as customers with choice), while seeing enough paying patients to offset the cost of free care.
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This case study is part of a series that accompanies The Bridgespan Group article " Audacious Philanthropy: Lessons from 15 World-Changing Initiatives" ( Harvard Business Review, Sept/Oct 2017).
