Aravind Eye Hospital

Aravind Eye Hospitals
Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai
Geography
Location	Tamil Nadu, India
Organisation
Hospital type	Specialist
Network	Aravind Eye Care System
Services
Beds	4000
Speciality	Ophthalmology
History
Founded	1976
Links
Website	http://www.aravind.org/

Aravind Eye Hospitals is a hospital chain in India. It was founded by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (popularly known as Dr.V) at Madurai, Tamil Nadu in 1976. It has grown into a network of eye hospitals and has had a major impact in eradicating cataract related blindness in India. As of 2012, Aravind has treated nearly 32 million patients and performed 4 million surgeries, the majority of them being cheap or free making it the world’s largest and most productive eye-care service group. The model of Aravind Eye Care hospitals has been applauded and has become a subject for numerous case studies across the world.

The problem of cataract related blindness was major in India with at least 4 million cases every year contributing nearly to a quarter of the world’s blind. Cataract related blindness can be avoided by timely intervention and surgery. In 1970's, India did not have eye care facilities to treat patients on such a large scale. Dr. Venkataswamy, the head of Ophthalmology at Madurai Medical College established the GOVEL Trust in 1976 after his retirement at the age of 58. The first Aravind Eye Hospital was founded in Madurai as a modest 20-bed hospital in a home after most banks refused to lend money citing Dr. V's age and the eccentric model. In this hospital, six beds were reserved for people who could not afford to pay while the remaining five were for paying patients. The hospitals were named after Sri Aurobindo, a freedom fighter and spiritual leader from India. Since the beginning, family members of Dr V have played a major role in the growth and success of the system.

Dr. V's vision was to eradicate needless blindness in India. Dr. V. wanted to emulate the service efficiency of McDonald's fast food and sought to adapt it to the eye care system to cope with increasing the numbers of patients treated. Aravind began performing surgeries on a large scale with treatment being free or heavily subsidized for the poor cross subsidized by the paying patients. Aravind established an outreach program wherein doctors reach out to remote villages to conduct eye camps sponsored by various organizations like Sathya Sai Organization, Lions Clubs International and Rotary International. The organizations take care of the costs of the camp, transporting the patients to surgery and their rehabilitation while Aravind does the surgery free of cost. Aravind started performing 5 times the number of cataract surgeries that were performed in the entire country and 16 times more than that of the entire U.S. Aravind established its own lens manufacturing facility Auro lab and blood bank to reduce costs.