Aravind Eye Care System

Introduction

            In this paper, the 5 I’s of marketing health services, which include inseparability, inconsistency, intangibility, interaction, and inventory are discussed based on the Avarind Eye care system. In 2010, Aravind eye care system was ranked the largest provider of eye care services as it handled an approximate of 6,000 outpatients each day including a number of eye surgeries  (Aravind, n.d.). Since then it has experienced a phenomenal growth in accomplishing its mission on eliminating needless blindness. Today, the Avarind Eye Care System has diversified its operations by enacting five healing centers, a global research establishment, and a manufacturing center for ophthalmic matters. The Avarind model aims at providing quality care that everybody can manage and concurrently profit from its operations. The major objective of the Avarind scheme is that the poor and the rich should enjoy their healing facility services without discrimination. Such principles are accomplished by having an incredible, considerable quantity mind, and the efficiency of the scheme  (Aravind, n.d.).

            Avarind eye hospitals were established from an 11-bedroom, which now extensively expanded to a major healing center in Madurai that grew to 1500 bed hospital where nearly 95,000 eye surgeries are done yearly. Other 4 additional eye hospitals in Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Theni, and Pondicherry have been established with an average of 3590 beds  (Aravind, n.d.). The extreme usage of assets in Aravind hospitals creates an inconceivable anxiety, as the nation experiences less than 1% ophthalmic labor. This puts Aravind in a position where it carries 5% of ophthalmic surgeries countrywide. In an approximate of two-thirds of outpatients visits the facility for surgeries, 3-4 of the surgeries are overhauled to the poor who pay no fee. However, many people suffering from vision problems have still no hospital access and less aware of the causes of blindness, especially in the villages.  Using this data, we analyze the 5 I’s of marketing as listed below: 

Inseparability

            The health care settings are based on offering services that, individuals offering them cannot be separated from these services. Eye system hospitals such Aravind provide their several services to a wide range of patients and thus, do not operate on the age biases, racial bias, and gender bias among others. Community programs created by AECS are aimed at creating eye care administration in direction of all entrance groups. In 2016, 2,590 camps were set by Aravind in which 570,761 patients were screened and 86,325 of them undertook surgical procedures  (Aravind, n.d.). The various Aravind Hospitals had independent sets of camp organizers who plan annual camps across each district. Local NGOs, Rotary clubs, and philanthropists sponsor these camps, which serve to create awareness of the local community on eye care. The results are that a few exhaustive Eye care programs are sorted out successively. The community is comprised of different age groups, racial, social class, and gender (Aravind, n.d.). As the central concern at Aravind Eye hospital was always the cost of surgery, a division called Aurolab was developed to provide excellent ophthalmic consumables at reasonable costs. The cost of lenses was also very high thus, motivating the creation of Aurolab. This facilitated the importation of raw materials that make lenses from countries such as UK/U.S. The Aurolab has expanded from concentrating on ophthalmic industry to offering social insurance ranges where its capacity on cardiovascular sutures, disinfectant solutions, and microsurgical hand sutures can be utilized. Eye bank facilities are also offered to all patients irrespective of their differences. Other community outreach programs such as Diabetic Retinopathy Management projects started in 2000, created awareness of diabetes, as well as, eye problems.

                                                            Inconsistency

            A high level of consistency is offered by this Eye Care System. Aravind Eye Care System provides services such as Hospital services, LAICO, Aurolab, research, Eye Bank, Education, and training with a high quality of reliability. These services are shown in the figure below.

            Fig 1.1

            The Eye System Care’s provision of healing facilitates high quality and affordable care to both the rich and the poor while remaining fiscally self-supporting is a clear definition of inconsistency. Regular eye screening of school children in their schools for eye defects indicates consistency in providing corrective measures from early stages. In this screening, teachers benefited as well since they are trained to measure visual insight and vitamin deficiency. In 80 schools screened in 2002, 68,528 children were screened 3,075 of them getting glasses to counter refractive errors. This indicates an outfitted claim as a fame center with influential support facilities (Aravind, n.d.).

                                      Intangibility

            Intangible services cannot be felt, touched, or heard unless they are encountered.  This Eye Care System defines the excellent level of intangibility as its characteristics such as posture and demeanor. The intangibility of Aravind services accrue benefits such as:

• Working in vision, not circumstances
• Inspiring and engaging employees
• Leadership transformation and responsibility
• Clarity among commotion
• Organization cooperation  (Pahurkar, n.d.)
• Improved responsiveness to customers

Interaction with consumers

            The relationship between Aravind Eye Hospital and its customers is better than any other hospital globally, because of the existing responsive interaction. Steps used to increase interaction include establishing many social camps, training programs, and providing affordable cost of lenses. According to the figure below, Aravind provides free of cost services to its patients.

Fig 1.2

Inventory

 Inventory is a major concern when analyzing the costs of the business product. In cases where employees delivering services are not utilized but still are being paid, an inventory exists. In the Eye Care System, physicians paid in terms on contract deals leads to the existence of an inventory. A low vision assessment of Aravind includes a scope of equipment such as telescopes, optical, and electronic magnifiers. Moreover, a pediatric vision appraisal for undermined youngsters is accessible from a different perspective. According to Dutta (2012), JAWS PC programming, which is a computer screen reader for the visually impaired, seemingly weakened graduates with committed frameworks. A lot of time is spent for the service and thus, create difficulties while measuring as seen in figure 1.2 above. The Eye Care System spends much time in nonservices areas. The figure below shows industry information on global eye care.

Fig 1.3

Recommend strategies

            In improving the operations of the Aravind Eye Care System, I can recommend various steps that will ensure the provision of better services to its health care consumers. These include:

• Concentrating on Search Engine Optimization to ensure global customers are aware of their services.
• Providing outstanding content that can be read and understood easily.
• Engage patients benefiting from their services to market the eye care practice.
• Video marketing through platforms such as YouTube  (Rivers, 2010 ).
• Discover inspiration from other global eye care industries.

References

aravind. (n.d.). Aravind Eye Care System. Retrieved from Aravind: http://www.aravind.org/default/servicescontent/Aurolab

aravind. (n.d.). Case Studies On Aravind Eye Care System. Retrieved from Aravind: http://www.aravind.org/default/aboutuscontent/casestudiesOnAravind

aravind. (n.d.). SERVICES. Retrieved from Aravind: http://www.aravind.org/default/servicescontent/programmes

Dutta, A. ( 2012, Sep 3). Aravind eye care service marketing. Retrieved from SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/Civility/aravind-eye-care-service-marketing

Pahurkar, R. N. (n.d.). Case Study On Innovation And Creativity In Service Organization Aravind Eye Care System. Retrieved from iaeme: http://www.iaeme.com/MasterAdmin/UploadFolder/IJM_06_08_002/IJM_06_08_002.pdf

Rivers, P. A. (2010, May 7). Health care competition, strategic mission, and patient satisfaction. Retrieved from NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2865678/