The clinic has performed more than 3.7 million eye surgeries since ophthalmologist Govindappa Venkataswamy founded the hospital in 1976, including over 300,000 operations last year, Aravind said.
There are more than 15 million blind citizens in India almost half the global blind population of 37 million people, according to Aravind. More than 80 percent of worldwide cases of blindness are easily curable or treatable with simple procedures like cataract surgery or with glasses, he said.
Blind Indians may find it impossible to find work and have shorter life expectancies, according to Aravind.
"If someone goes blind in India at 55, and the average life expectancy in India is 68, they won't live more than two or three years after they go blind," Aravind said.
Aravind Eye Care Hospital works to alleviate problems associated with blindness by basing their delivery system on a novel model, he said.
"The delivery system for our operation comes from our founder's fascination with fast food restaurants McDonald's and KFC," Aravind said. "He said, Wherever you go in the world, they're giving you the same product. You pay them, and if you are a different religion, different culture, different race whatever it may be you get the same product.' If that can be implemented in eye care, we can pretty much solve this problem of blindness in developing countries."
The hospital embraces a business model based on the assumption that those who can pay for health care will, even if they could receive the same care for free, Aravind said.
"Part of the patients pay for their care, part of the patients don't pay for their care and we don't go and police who should pay and who shouldn't pay," he said.
While the medical care provided at the payment-plan facilities and free clinics which are often across the street from one another is the same, those who pay for health care are provided with additional privacy and amenities, like air conditioning and higher quality food, according to Aravind. Hospital officials do not decide who can receive free care and who cannot, allowing market forces to function, Avarind said.
"People constantly ask us Do people take advantage of the free service? Why wouldn't all of them get the free service?'" Aravind said. "That's not how it works."
The hospital also operates in conjunction with volunteer organizations to establish eye care camps across Tamil Nadu, according to Aravind. In 2010, hospital officials set up more than 2,000 eye care camps to assist Indians living in rural areas who require glasses or cataract surgery, Aravind said. While these camps are effective at assisting those with minor eye conditions, they do not address those with more serious maladies, he said.
In order to identify more serious problems, hospital officials set up a system of 34 primary eye care clinics that serves approximately 2 million individuals in India, he said.
To decrease the cost of providing free surgeries, surgeons have adapted to perform surgeries in an efficient manner, Aravind said. A good surgeon at the hospital can conduct six to eight cataract surgeries in an hour, according to Aravind. This system allows Aravind Eye Care Hospital to be 500 times more efficient than other eye care hospitals in India and its surrounding region, he said.
The hospital also produces its own eye glasses at a "very low cost" to patients, Aravind said. Glasses are not widely used in India, however, he said.
"There are more mobile phones in India than spectacles," Aravind said. "The mobile phones have reached the population much better than a better product, a product people really need. Hopefully, [spectacles] will reach the customers because people want to see their mobile phone numbers."
The hospital also started its own intraocular lens manufacturing plant in 1992, according to Aravind. The lenses, which are implanted into the eye, are produced at the plant for patients in developing countries, he said.
The plant, Aurolab, was able to drive the price of intraocular lenses from $100 to $2, Aravind said.
"Ten million people see the world through Aurolab's lenses," Aravind said.
Above all, the hospital continues to embrace the altruism of the hospital's founder, Aravind said.
"Intelligence and capability are not enough," he said, quoting Venkataswamy. "There must be the joy of doing something beautiful."
