Eye hospitals · Healthcare
Lens-level control and package margin for eye hospitals, from stock to surgery
An eye hospital's surgery revenue depends on packages priced by lens type. Its lens stock runs across many powers and models, often on consignment. We match every lens used to the package it was billed under and cost each package from surgery to discharge, so you can see where the margin actually comes from.
In one paragraph
Eye hospitals and eye-care chains, usually with one to thirty centres and ₹15–300 crore turnover, combine cataract and refractive surgery, retina and other specialty care, optical retail and pharmacy. Surgical volume is high. The lens inventory is spread across hundreds of powers and models, and retail businesses run inside the hospital. Founders and medical directors, often with the finance head, usually see one hospital result that blends all of it.
Founder or medical director, often with the finance head
The economics
How the money moves in this trade
Cataract surgery is usually sold as a package whose price depends mainly on the intraocular lens chosen. The range runs from basic monofocal lenses to premium multifocal and toric lenses. The surgery itself — theatre time, surgeon fee, consumables — costs roughly the same across packages, so the lens drives both price and cost. Lenses are stocked in many powers, much of it on consignment, and the hospital must carry a range wide enough for every patient.
Alongside surgery, an eye hospital often runs an optical counter selling frames and spectacle lenses, a pharmacy, diagnostic services and outreach camps that bring patients from surrounding areas. Refractive and some diagnostic equipment may carry per-procedure charges payable to the equipment vendor. Each of these lines has its own margin, inventory and staffing. They are frequently reported together as one hospital result.
The problem
Where the numbers usually break down
Lens consignment is not reconciled
Supplier consignment stock and hospital-owned lenses sit together in theatre, and lenses used are not systematically matched to supplier invoices and patient bills.
Package margin is not measured by lens
Package prices are set by lens category without tracking what the lens, surgery and consumables cost in each category, so some packages may be priced too thin.
Optical retail is not run as a business
Frame and spectacle-lens stock is counted rarely, and the optical counter's margin, shrinkage and staff cost are mixed with the hospital's.
Outreach camps are not costed
Camp transport, staff and screening cost are spread across overheads, so the surgery volume and margin each camp generates is unknown.
Per-procedure equipment charges are not tracked
Where refractive or diagnostic equipment carries per-use charges, those are paid on the vendor's statement without being matched to procedures performed.
What we do
The work, and the result each part produces
Lens reconciliation by case
Lens stock — owned and consignment — matched to surgeries performed, patient bills and supplier invoices.
Every lens used is billed correctly and paid for once.
Package costing by lens category
Lens, theatre time, surgeon fee, consumables and post-operative care costed for each package.
Each package shows its margin, and pricing can be set accordingly.
Optical retail accounts
Frame and lens stock counted on a cycle, sales and margin reported separately, shrinkage measured.
The optical counter is judged as a retail business.
Outreach camp economics
Camp cost set against the surgeries and follow-up revenue each camp generates.
Outreach effort goes where it brings patients.
Equipment charge matching
Per-procedure equipment charges matched to procedures recorded before payment.
Equipment charges are paid on evidence.
Service-line reporting
Surgery, consultation, diagnostics, optical and pharmacy reported as separate lines with their own contribution.
Each line of the hospital is visible on its own.
Where we start
The first steps of an engagement
Lens register and supplier statements
We ask for the theatre lens register by case, consignment and owned lens stock, supplier invoices and statements, package price lists by lens category, optical stock records and equipment vendor statements.
Lenses used against bills and invoices
Recent surgeries are matched lens by lens to the patient bill, the supplier invoice and the stock movement. Unbilled lenses, double invoices and stock gaps are listed.
Lens matching in the routine close
Each surgery's lens record is matched to supplier invoices and stock movements as part of the regular close, rather than at a year-end count.
Package margin by lens report
The first report shows lenses used, billed and invoiced by case, package margin by lens category, and per-procedure equipment charges matched to procedures performed.
How it is measured
The reports the work is judged on
Each is recorded as a baseline before the work starts, so later reports have an honest comparison.
- Lenses used, billed and invoiced, reconciled by case
- Package margin by lens category
- Optical retail margin and shrinkage
- Surgeries generated per outreach camp, against camp cost
- Equipment charges matched to procedures
- Contribution by service line and centre
Who it suits
Written for, and not the right fit for
- You need help with clinical protocols, equipment selection on clinical grounds or hospital registration; those sit with your clinicians and the relevant authorities.
- You need a statutory audit or tax-audit report for the eye hospital on its own — that is signed by an independently engaged CA.
- Eye hospitals with high cataract volume and a wide lens range.
- Eye-care chains running optical retail and pharmacy alongside surgery.
- Groups opening new centres or vision centres in smaller towns.
Services
Services this work draws on
Internal controls and risk
Controls sized to your business, documented and actually tested.
Explore service ↗Costing and profitability
What each product, line and customer really contributes.
Explore service ↗Outsourced accounting
Your books kept current and reconciled, closed to a published calendar.
Explore service ↗Internal audit
Independent process review that closes findings rather than filing them.
Explore service ↗Every other service, also available in this trade
Common questions
Questions owners in this trade ask
We stock hundreds of lens powers. Is reconciliation practical?
Yes, if it's done case by case rather than as a year-end count. Each surgery records the lens used; matching those records to supplier invoices and stock movements each week keeps the exercise small.
Should optical retail really be reported separately?
It runs on different economics — retail margins, frame stock, shrinkage — and mixing it with clinical revenue hides both. Separating it is usually straightforward and immediately informative.
Do you advise on which lenses to offer?
No. Lens choice is a clinical matter for your surgeons and the patient. We show what each package costs and earns so pricing decisions are informed.
5th Quadrant performs inventory reconciliation, costing, control and reporting work. Clinical decisions, clinical establishment registration and accreditation are the hospital's own responsibility with its clinicians and the relevant authorities. Statutory audit and tax-audit reports are performed by independently engaged licensed professionals. Full detail is on our Professional Scope page.
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