Changing the game for health care in rural China through what we love to do

Creating true value and measurable impact is something CBi China Bridge strives for with everything we do. However when we were working with Vision in Practice, a Chinese organization dedicated to giving rural farmers opportunity to see clearly again, we believed we had to step up, really give back and make impact. 

 

What was happening, elderly cataract patients would come to VIP’ s initial screening, they would agree to the eye surgery and then they would not come back for the appointment.

 

If you have a service and you can’t get the results you are expecting then you need to find out why, find the influencing factors and define what can change. 

 

Vision in Practice offers high quality, high volume and low cost cataract surgery to elderly people in China’s poorest areas.  Surprisingly, Vision in Practice was having problems converting patients in need of surgery to treated patients. They could not get them to commit and accept their service, even when the surgery would greatly improve their eyesight.   The patients knew they had “clouds in their eyes” because that is what they told the doctors.   But they didn’t come in and have the surgery, even if it was free. 

 

Using research techniques like patient journey mapping, ethnographic observation and co-creation labs China Bridge worked with the hospital and Vision in Practice discover critical barriers to their services success. For instance, patients and their families make their living by working on the land so it was hard for family members to get away from their work to take someone to the hospital.  The families that farm also normally used public hospitals, not the private facilities that offered the surgery. This was mainly because their insurance wouldn’t fully cover it.Screening for cataracts was also something very new, it barely happens in these rural communities.

 

With these insights, CBi China Bridge andthe Vision in Practice team couldwork withthe screening teams, doctors and hospital administration to Co-Create differentapproaches to key challenges.  The refined processes and business model among others included more education at the places where it was really needed, outbound patient screening and flexibility in timing during harvest seasons. Overall, the biggest impact was made by creating empathy between care givers and patients, having tools for prototyping and measuring. 

 

“China Bridge offered Vision in Practice a different depth and perspective to our business model and the services we provided,” Vision in Practice Executive Director Jeff Parker said. “They were able to help us get to the pulse of the Chinese consumer because they understand the culture so well. The spirit of the China Bridge team was really inspiring to us.”

The results tell the whole story. The conversion rate before the project was

35% and it grew to 63% after China Bridge’sprocesses and tools were

implemented. 

 

Please contact us  when you would like more information on social responsibility from CBi China Bridge.