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Privately Funded Quality Health Care in India: A Sustainable and Equitable Model

As the cost and degree of training necessary to provide state of the art health care has increased throughout the world, the present challenge in health care is to establish institutions that are financially sound and responsive to the dynamic needs of the communities in which they exist. As public funds have diminished, the role of the private sector in establishing innovative health care institutions has increased. This paper reviews the case of the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), an ophthalmologic institute in Hyderabad, India, that is financially sound and medically vital. With an annual budget of US$3 million, 180,000 patients are seen and 23,000 surgeries are performed at the Institute and its satellites each year. The Institute provides patient care at a ratio of 1:1 non-paying to paying patients through fee cross- subsidization. The Institute uses a combination of financial modalities, including donations, grants and fees to administer its non-patient care programs. Non-clinical programs of the Institute include a paramedical training program and a fellowship in ophthalmology, an internationally accredited eye bank for the preservation of corneal tissues, a rural outreach and education program, a basic science and epidemiology program that directs health policy activities of the Institute and a rehabilitation program for patients with incurable visual deficits. To evaluate its effectiveness, LVPEI uses quality improvement measures, including patient surveys, post-operative outcomes studies and service utilization reviews. This case report of a privately- funded medical institution describes a successful model through which high-quality, equitable health care can be provided in a developing country. The LVPEI's active program of quality management, its academic commitment and programmatic relevance to the needs of its community should be modularized and replicated to establish equitable, efficient and effective health care institutions in the developing world.