Surabhi SharmaS.No 24

Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India – In Service for Sight

Q.1 How do you evaluate the quality of service at--

Main Hospital:

• Cost of cataract surgery Rs.500 to Rs.1000 – Value for money• A,B, & C class rooms, different privacy and facilities – Treat me as valued• Several doctor on duty – Address my need on first contact• Testing facilities(Ocular tension, tear duct function, refraction test) – Desire to meet my needs• Retina specialty section - Knowledgeable employees• Patient awakened early, light breakfast before surgery – Courteous employees• Patients were seated and prepared for surgery in fixed numbers as per the resource availability - • 15minutes ECCE cataract surgery – Company can be trusted• Structure process in operation theatre - Company can be trusted

Free Hospital:

• Free hospital (patient relatively poor to main hospital ones): basic need• Temporary shelter waiting area for registration – Not the requirement• First time patients were directed to different line – Address the need on first contact• Patient flow crowded – Address my need on the first contact• Same sequence as of main hospital – Company I can trust• Staff-in-blue helping and guiding patients – Courteous employee• Tired patients rests on floor – Desire to meet my needs• More commotion observed – Desire to meet my needs• Similar flow of surgery – Company I can trust• No IOL insertion, aphakic glasses used – value for money• Conversation with patient while operation – Personalized service• Patients were provided floor mats instead of beds – Value for money• One type of room with capacity of 20 – 30 accommodation – value for money• Details kept of all post-operative complications – Quickly access information• Complicated operations were directed to senior medical officers - Company I can trust

Q.1 How do you evaluate the quality of service at--

Q.2 What has been the role of Aravind’s clinic and support staff ?

• Work with sponsors• Helping and guiding patients• Registering the entry• Directing them for respective tests• Nursing• Organizing logistics• Arranging physical facilities

Q.3 Are there any weaknesses in the Aravind’s model of delivering eye care?

Registration Vision recording Preliminary examination

Testing of tension and tear duct

functionRefraction

Final examination by senior medical

officer

Optical shop

• Unable to manage peak hours• Theni facility utilized below average• High cost and low quality camps

Role of Arvind’s clinic and support staff

To achieve excellence in service Marketing by• External marketing : Cure blindness caused by cataract and provide

quality eye care at reasonable cost, Reach as many people as possible for eye treatment

• Internal Marketing : Training and motivating staff to serve the patients well and make all sort of people feel at ease. This can be done if the staff view the entire exercise as a spiritual experience

• Interactive Marketing: Organizing Camps, sponsored by local businessmen, to attract more patients so that people gets aware of this problem and can be cured from blindness caused by cataract

• To be aligned with Dr V’s thinking of pushing the mind and body to its highest effort level, irrespective of the income, to make people’s lives better

Weaknesses in Arvind’s Model• Travel Issues

– Attracted a lot of customers through camps but it still required the selected patients to come down to the hospital for surgery and many could not stay away from their house for long

• Occupancy Rate– inflow of patients was irregular ie sometimes overcrowded sometimes slack

(below its capacity).This reduced the average rate of occupancy of the hospital• Reach

– As the patients are taken to the hospitals after screening for surgery, the camps could not be held anywhere far from the hospital

• Salaries– The salaries were comparitively low in comparison to the private hospitals

therefore it wold be difficult to retain the best talent for long and also the medical staff would not be able to grow at a rapid growth

Quality Service – Free HospitalReliability

Highly reliable Cataract removal technique used gives more than 95% chance of

improved vision

Empathy

Doctor gets into personalize talk with patient – to

make them comfortable

Responsiveness

Highly responsive. At camps, Arrvind’s team screen patient. Those require surgery were

transported to Madurai. They were returned after 3 days after surgery and

recuperation

Assurance

Specialist use to sit at separate floor and

senior medical official use to analyze final

operation report

Tangibles

• Almost all surgeries ICCE ECCE only because of

medical reason• Only one of the operating

table equipped with operating microscope

Quality Service – Paid HospitalReliability

Highly reliable Cataract removal technique used gives more than 95% chance of

improved vision

Empathy

Responsiveness

Highly responsive. Provided A,B,C class rooms, each with

different level of privacy. People divided into 2 groups after

sequential series of evaluation. In patient admission time for

surgery within 3 days

Assurance

Tangibles

Doctor gets into personalize talk

with patience – to make them comfortable

• Both ICCE cataract as well as ECCE treatments

• Both the other operating tables were equipped with operating microscope

• 3 classes of bedroom A,B,C with diff level of privacy & facilities

Specialist use to sit at separate floor and

senior medical official use to analyze final

operation report

Recomendation

• Local Eye Care Centres– Local eye centres to offload the workload of 3 hospitals by holding the

screening tests and follow-up check ups– located in a place such that the travelling of patients is minimized. This

would increase the acceptance rate

• Franchising– franchising of the centres by forming partnerships with other hospitals

• Onsight surgical facilities (MOU)• To recruit and retain the doctors• To change the number of hours of working• To reduce the defects in the lenses