Tele-Ophthalmology - Fixing Rural Eyecare Problem Through Operational Excellence

The case narrates the inception and operationalization of a public, private partnership (PPP) between the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) and Apollo Tele Health Services - the tele-medicine arm of one of the largest hospital chains in India, to provide free Tele-Ophthalmology services to rural population residing in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) using technology. The PPP is called "Mukhyamantri e-Eye Kendram (MeEK)", and its objectives are to provide (i) ophthalmic diagnosis and (ii) free spectacles, to the needy citizens of the state. As part of the PPP, Apollo refurbished 115 vision centers across 13 districts of the state and launched the MeEK project in February 2018. Apollo created a pool of 30 ophthalmologists to provide tele-diagnosis from a remote location; contracted a vendor to manufacture and deliver spectacles; and designed and developed an electronic medical record (EMR) software to integrate all stakeholders in a seamless fashion during the delivery of these services. However, after the launch of MeEK, Apollo began to face various challenges in terms of both software customization and integration, as well as delivery of spectacles, as the demand far outweighed supplier's capacity. As a result, Apollo could not meet the key performance indicators (KPIs) put in place by the government, and began to incur penalties. The case provides the students with an opportunity to analyze various operational trade-offs such as cost, quality, variety and speed in a capacity constrained environment and identify opportunities for improvement without sacrificing one performance indicator for another.

• Public-private partnerships
• Process improvement
• Process analysis