Today, a major part of LAICO’s work centers around capacity building for other eye hospitals. Oddly enough, this was not a part of the original proposal. It was the flood of applications from the Lions clubs to the SightFirst programme requesting new eye hospitals that led to this activity. The Lions leaders realized that the existing Lions Eye Hospital were grossly under utilized and adding more hospitals could further deteriorate this situation. LAICO was challenged to address this and that led to the development of the capacity building process.
Today, the institute receives request from hospitals in other countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Africa and Latin America that are looking to adapt the Aravind model to suit their particular circumstances. LAICO team now works with over 216 eye hospitals through consultancy for capacity building. It works in collaboration with INGO’s like Lions International, Sight Savers International, CBM, IEF, Seva Foundation and the World and the World Health Organization in order to achieve its goals.
There are 2 distinct capacity building programmes offered at LAICO:
- For Existing Hospitals, where the focus is on enhancing the volume of work, quality, productivity, utilization of resources, cost effectiveness, financial self-sufficiency and sustainability.
- For new / start-up hospitals, the focus in on planning for the new building or building remodeling, manpower planning, minimum basic equipment requirements, clinical and administrative systems to be introduced, projected cash flow and budgeting to start an eye hospital.
Consultancy is carried out through the following phase :
- Needs Assessment Visit
- Vision Building Workshop
- Follow-up Visit
- Monitoring
Needs Assessment Visit
LAICO teams conduct needs assessment visits to the hospitals to gain a better understanding of the working systems and management structure. They also establish a framework for capacity building specific to each hospital and more importantly build a relationship with the hospital team.
Vision Building Workshop
Following the needs assessment visit, a multidisciplinary team from the hospitals comprising the Chairman, the Administrator, the Chief Ophthalmologist and a Senior Paramedic attend a six-day workshop at LAICO. The workshop provides an environment for the key personnel from each hospital team to evolve a vision for their hospital. The workshop also helps them develop various strategies by which this vision can be translated into reality. These strategies are then formed into detailed action plans relating to social marketing, service delivery, demand generation, quality assurance and financial viability.
As per the individual requirements of the partner hospitals, LAICO also conducts workshops in skills development and standardization of systems. The skills development workshop imparts skills in solving problems, managing change and communicating ideas. It then integrates the application of these ideas into the daily operation of the hospitals. The standardization workshops review clinical and administrative procedures and help the partner hospitals to adapt best practices. These procedures enhance the quality and effectiveness of the eye care services provided by the hospitals.
Follow-up visit
 After allowing six months for the hospitals to implement their strategies, the LAICO – Aravind team makes follow-up visits to provide further support to the hospitals in implementing their action plan. Upon request, a second workshop is organized for some hospitals to review the status of implementation of the strategies and work towards developing in detail a set of administrative procedures and clinical protocols that will ensure high quality and efficiency. Also covered in the workshop are issues related to implementing change, problem solving and managing people. In addition to help with the change process, training support is offered to individuals from the hospitals, both in clinical and administrative areas.
Monitoring
All the hospitals send a monthly performance report to LAICO giving information to gauge the effect of the capacity building process and to plan for further support. Further follow-up visits are conducted as per the requirements of each project.
Our Partners
|
