By Shweta Sinha | Program Manager
NBJK with its committment to provide quality Eye care services to the needy people in Jharkhand state launched a Vision centre in Koderma block, where the patients of the nearby area can visit and get themselves diagnosed and treated. We wanted to create awareness in the area about Eyecare and encourage people to get themselves diagnosed. The vision centre uses latest equipments for diagnosis and provides spectacles and medication. In case if the patients were diagnosed of severe Eye diseases like Cataract, Glaucoma or other diseases they will be referred to the NBJK's base hospital where they will be further diagnosed and operated.
As, the vision centre in Hazaribagh was a big success, expectation from the Koderma's Vision centre was also high. Optometrists and staffs were recruited, equipments were purchased, stocks of spectacles and medicines were purchased to make the Vision centre run effectively. Despite all the efforts; unfortunately, the Vision centre did not work as per expectations and the inflow of patients was very less. With so much investment of time, capital and energy the Vision Centre was not working.
We were not happy with the development and tried to figure out what went wrong with the Vision centre. We did conducted a random sample survey where we interviewed few patients who visited the centre, random people in the nearby area and also the staff. With the survey we came to know that the location of the Vision Centre is not appropriate, it is difficult to reach and requires more conveyance cost. It is a big factor making people reluctant to visit the centre. Also, we came to know that we failed to understand the customer's needs to providing specific frame/design/range of spectacles as asked by them. The customers were not happy with the range of spectacles provided by us. Now, we have changed our inventory materials to suit the customer's demands.
Here is what we learnt from our experience:
- Need assessment/ understanding the area, people is key to any activity.
- Location is an important factor: it should be easily accessible by public transportation.
- Staff should be competent enough to understand people's need and demand.
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