Aravind Eye Care System, India

Eye Care Hospital Equipped with New Skills

The Aravind Eye Hospital started as an eleven-bed eye clinic in 1976 and has now grown to become the world’s largest eye care provider. Over the past thirty years they have handled over 27.5 million out-patient visits and over 3.4 million patients have undergone surgery.

Aravind’s mission is to 'eliminate needless blindness'. They work on the principle of providing large volume, high quality and affordable services in a financially self-sustainable manner. While two-thirds of Aravind’s patients receive either free or highly subsidised care, much importance is given to ensuring that all patients are accorded the same high quality care and service, regardless of their economic status.

Aravind's innovative eye care delivery system has been recognised as a model for other developing countries. Aravind is a World Health Organization collaborating centre and this year it received a prestigious award: The Gate’s Award for Global Health from Global Health Council, USA. Through a series of assignments with a range of Emerging World clients, Aravind have identified ways of growing their organization, whilst retaining their social conscience and continuing their valuable work in rural communities.

“Let me thank IBM and Emerging World... what has been achieved shows us how, with discipline and delegation, we can transform a dream into a reality,” said Dr S, Administrator for Aravind Eye Care System. “All of us today feel empowered and more energised of what we are doing and we assure you we will get better at this. Thank you for showing us an appropriate way to work and get organized to be able to reach our vision of providing eye care to a million people in a year.”