Limiting patient visits one way to improve sustainability
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SAN FRANCISCO — Ophthalmic institutions can help reduce their overall carbon emissions by changing their service design, according to a speaker at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
Thulasiraj Ravilla, MBA, said eye care centers should take measures to reduce their carbon footprint, such as replacing energy-guzzling equipment and making arrangements to use solar or wind power. However, the actual medical program can be designed in a way to improve environmental impact while making the experience better for patients.
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“We design our services with consciously closing the care loop,” he said about the Aravind Eye Care System. “If you don’t do that, people drop off at different stages.”
At Aravind, Ravilla said an effort is made to complete a patient’s care in a single visit. This ensures fewer people drop out and cuts down on the carbon emissions that would come from transportation to repeat visits.
Ravilla said Aravind also uses the power of aggregation to bring in more people. It is able to bus 50 to 100 people to the center at one time, limiting the emissions that would come from each patient finding their own transportation.
Eye care centers should have better control over supply chain management, specifically when it comes to getting glasses to patients. Ravilla said Aravind is able to provide glasses on the spot to 85% to 90% of patients. Half of those glasses are delivered within 30 minutes.
In addition, patient visits are cut down with a lean clinical protocol and standard operating procedures across the system.
All these standards create a triple win, Ravilla said.
“The community spends less in a single visit — we do a lot of things for them — so they see more value for their money, which in turn increases demand for us,” he said. “The hospital gets more patients and through efficiency and frugality reduces costs. And there is overall less carbon emission.”
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Ravilla T. Environmental sustainability — principles and practices at Aravind. Presented at: American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting; Nov. 3-6, 2023; San Francisco.
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