When I think of McDonalds, I have a clear image of what to expect. Fast service. Yes. Mass production. Yes. High quality. Ummm...not so much. I was kind of surprised, therefore to read about the Aravind Eye care System whose founder, Dr.G. Venkataswamy (Dr. V), designed the hospital based on the management principles he saw utilized by McDonalds when visiting the United States. I was not surprised that following successful fast food principles might help a doctor create "the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world, in terms of surgical volume and the number of patients treated," but I was surprised that such a facility would become so well known for the high quality of its care and the social justice of its mission.

Aravind is based in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India and provides eye care to over 400,000 paying patients per year. Through careful management of doctor, lab, and equipment capacity, they are able to effectively mass produce eye care, thus driving down the cost of care. This enables them to afford cutting edge technology and deliver excellent medical care while turning enough of a profit to be able to cover the costs of serving more than 900,000 patients each year whose incomes fall below the poverty line. This means a lot more than providing care to those who walk through their doors; it involves extensive outreach and community programs to actually recruit, transport, and then care for their patients. A good overview of the hospital may be found on YouTube.

Ravi, in conversation described Aravind's approach. "Aravind has pioneered a model that follows the principle that large volume, high quality services result in sustainability and lower costs. The revenue generated from the "paying" patients fully offsets the cost of caring for the poorer two-thirds of the total number of patients with the same quality of care received by both segments. Aravind effectively markets itself by organizing camps to attract patients in rural India. The hospital even takes up the responsibility to pick up diagnosed patients from rural areas and to send the patients back to their homes when the surgery is completed. HBR mentions that an average ophthalmologist in India performs about 200 cataract surgeries a year, while "an Aravind doctor performs about 1,500 - an efficiency multiple of 7.5." The technology used at Aravind is cutting-edge. The effective management makes sure that the operations are streamlined and effective."

Jim Fruchterman shared his observations on Beneblog: Technology Meets Society after visiting this "prototypical social enterprise." In particular, he commented on their use of data and technology to manage their operations. On the data side, he spoke to their comprehensive and accurate forecasting process. "Aravind's mission is to eliminate needless blindness, and they approach this objective with an amazing level of rigor. They are data-driven in a way that it is transparent to patients and staff alike. Every facility I saw had boards noting the daily activity. Target plans were readily accessible: I was visiting during school holidays and they were expecting more patients than typical."

On the technology side, he wrote about the use of communications and collaborative technology to enable doctors to help patients over a long distance. "Telemedicine always seemed to me to be pretty heavily hyped, and not used as much as it has been hyped. At Aravind, it doesn't seem to be hyped but gets a ton of use. While I was in the main hospital, there was a doctor on telemedicine calls with a couple of outlying facilities. The patients actually get to speak with the doctor via the link."

In speaking of Aravind's work, Dr. V. has stated ""Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful." On her blog, Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!], Nimmy has taken it further stating that "'beautiful' here means something that touches people/society....something related to the welfare of people/world at large....something that one will feel proud of....something that makes life better, for many people!"

Aravind not only does something that is beautiful, but they do something that has enabled millions of people to better perceive and enjoy beauty.