Keywords: Blindness/prevention and control; Health Planning; Software; Organisation and Administration; India;
J Comm Eye Health Indian Supplement 2004;17(49): s20
ARTICLE
Tools to plan for more effective eye care programmes
Blindness is a global public health problem with approximately 45 million people blind and another 135 million people visually impaired, worldwide. The large number of patients requiring care suggests that a well run eye care programme can generate enough revenue to sustain itself, provided patients can be brought into the system and services are of high enough quality to attract patients. Developing a sustainable programme, however, requires a lot of planning to balance investment and yield for optimal results. Workload estimations are needed to plan for human resources and infrastructure requirements.
The potential market for services needs to be estimated to determine the reach of the programme, and to plan for strategies to better tap the unmet need. Such planning will provide eye care programmes with a structured but flexible approach towards building sustainability.
We are currently developing tools for the following
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To estimate the market potential or the unmet need for cataract and refractive services
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A tool to guide through decision making or an investment analysis for acquiring ophthalmic equipment.
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A tool for strategic planning for an existing eye hospital including planning for manpower requirements and cost recovery
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A tool for establishing effective eye hospitals
We encourage readers to access and evaluate these tools and provide us with feedback to further improve them. The tools and manual can be accessed at http://www.aravind.org/tools/index.htm
We wish to acknowledge support from International Eye Foundation, USA towards development of these tools.
Address for feedback and correspondence: S. Saravanan, Faculty, LAICO, Aravind Eye Care System, 72, Kuruvikaran Salai, Gandhi Nagar, Madurai - 625 020 Phone: 91-0452-5356500 Fax: 91-452-2530984 E mail: SARAVANAN@ARAVIND.ORG
