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Eye clinics copy McDonald's - 20th October 2021

Over 500,000 eye surgeries are now being performed by one group of hospitals in India which has adopted a McDonald’s mode of operation.

The Aravind Eye Hospital was set up by Doctor Govindappa Venkataswamy, who took inspiration from McDonald’s former CEO Ray Kroc. During a visit to the fast food chain’s Chicago-based Hamburger University, Venkataswamy became interested in the economies of scale Kroc had introduced. He saw no reason why this approach wouldn’t work in the field of eye medicine. Growing from just one 11-bed hospital in 1976, its centres now stretch across India.

Blindness affects an estimated 10 million people in the country while a further 50 million live with other visual impairments. Many of these are treatable according to Thulasiraj Ravilla, the hospital’s operations director.

Thulasiraj Ravilla: "And the bulk of this blindness is not necessary because lots of it is due to cataract, which can be easily set right through a simple surgery."

Covid-19 has led to extended waits for treatment, meaning that the hospitals have begun running extended operating lists to ensure as many people as possible can be treated. Ravilla describes a typical day in theatre.

Thulasiraj Ravilla: "So, typically we start, the theatre starts at 7am. Maybe the first case may come out at 7.15 or 7.30. So that continues, that has not changed. But then in the past, we would be done by lunchtime. You know, and after that they, they would prep the theatre for the next day. But now it's not uncommon for the surgery to go on till four o’clock, or three o'clock, four o'clock, like that."

With fewer than two cases in every 10,000 resulting in post cataract surgery infection, it seems the high volume of operations and their quick turnaround aren’t affecting quality. Infection rates are far lower than the 4 to 8 in 10,000 found in the UK and US.

The hospital’s satisfied patients certainly have no concerns over the ‘McDonald’s approach’.

Venkatachalam Rajangam: "I thought the operation would be for an hour but within 15 minutes everything was over. But it didn’t feel rushed. The procedure was done properly."

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