What if the path to improving vision care—and building financial sustainability—was as close as your hospital’s optical shop?
At Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in India, that question led to a bold decision: stop outsourcing optical services and bring them in-house. Their goal is to reach 25% profitability, cover 8 hospitals and 107 vision centers, and—most importantly—made eyeglasses more affordable and accessible to the people who need them most.
But this isn’t just a financial story. It’s about people.
It’s about patients who can finally see clearly enough to work, study, or care for their families.
It’s about staff who are now trained, empowered, and connected to a deeper mission.
It’s about communities gaining access to better care and stronger local economies.
👓 Why Own Your Optical Shop?
Uncorrected refractive error (URE) is one of the leading causes of vision loss worldwide, especially in low-resource settings. Many eye hospitals outsource their optical shops, which often means losing control of:
- Pricing – profit is managed by a company, not the hospital
- Product quality – limited control over lens quality and frame styles
- Revenue – shared with another entity
- Patient experience – staff training and patient wait times may be inconsistent
- Scalability – opening centers in less profitable locations
Shroff’s experience shows that owning the optical journey can create a ripple effect:
✅ Better patient outcomes through integrated care
✅ Faster service with in-house lens edging labs
✅ New revenue to support free or subsidized care for their mission
✅ Local job creation and staff retention through training and incentives
🔧 How Did They Do It?
The team at Shroff took a thoughtful, step-by-step approach:
- Piloted the model in one hospital before scaling.
- Obtain all required licenses and certifications to operate legally with the help of corporate lawyer
- Used a tiered pricing model—affordable (~$2.50) frames for low-income patients and premium options for others.
- Trained community health workers and clinical staff to identify refractive needs and refer patients.
- Built an in-house lens edging lab for faster, cheaper delivery.
- Created a transparent supply chain and invested in on-site teams at every hospital and vision center.
- Managed cash flow at each level of the supply chain.
💡 What Can Other Hospitals Learn?
If you’re thinking about launching or improving an in-house optical shop, here are a few takeaways:
- 🛠️ Start small. Pilot, learn, and grow.
- 🧭 Keep patient flow smooth. Make it easy to go from prescription to purchase in one visit.
- 👥 Invest in people. Your staff are your most valuable asset. Train them, reward them, and give them a mission to believe in.
- 📊 Track your data. Sales, customer feedback, and costs are all tools for smart scaling.
💬 Let’s Talk!
Are you exploring an in-house optical model? Already running one and have lessons to share? I’d love to hear from you!
- What’s working—or not—in your context?
- What questions do you have for the Shroff team of experts?
➡️ Comment below! Let’s learn from each other and build something better—together.
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