VisionCare Eye Clinic — Operations Plan

The clinical service-delivery model, premises, layout and equipment schedule, clinical governance and patient safety, and technology, EMR and POPIA data protection.

VisionCare Eye Clinic Business PlanSection 6 › Operations Plan

Section 6 · Business Plan

Operations Plan

The clinical service-delivery model, premises, layout and equipment schedule, clinical governance and patient safety, and technology, EMR and POPIA data protection.

6.1 Clinical Service Delivery Model

VisionCare operates a multidisciplinary hub-and-spoke clinical model
within a single facility. The patient journey is designed for minimal
friction and maximum clinical value per encounter:

  1. Arrival and digital check-in at a self-service kiosk, verifying
    medical-scheme membership in real-time.
  2. Pre-screening workup by an ophthalmic nurse — visual acuity,
    auto-refraction, tonometry — before the patient sees the clinician. This
    saves 8–10 minutes of clinician chair-time per encounter.
  3. Primary consultation with the optometrist or (Phase 2)
    ophthalmologist. Diagnostic tests ordered are executed in dedicated
    imaging rooms while the clinician sees the next patient, then the
    patient returns for interpretation and plan discussion.
  4. Dispensing and check-out: the dispensing optician walks the
    patient through frame selection and lens options; the billing
    coordinator processes scheme claims in real-time via integrated
    EDI.
  5. Follow-up and recall: the EMR system automatically schedules
    appropriate follow-up appointments and sends annual-recall SMS
    reminders.

This flow targets a patient-through-the-door time of 45–55 minutes
for a full examination including dispensing — materially shorter than
the 70–90 minutes typical in hospital-based ophthalmology clinics and
comparable to the best-in-class retail optical experience.

6.2 Premises, Layout & Equipment Schedule

The primary site will occupy approximately 320 square metres in a
well-trafficked retail or medical-park location within the agreed
catchment area. The layout allocates space as follows:

Zone Area (m²) % of Total Primary Function
Reception, waiting, retail dispensary 80 25% Patient arrival, frame display, dispensing desks
Consultation rooms (×3) 54 17% Optometrist and (Phase 2) ophthalmology consultations
Diagnostic imaging suite 45 14% OCT, visual field, fundus camera, topographer
Pre-workup room 18 6% Nurse-led pre-screening and auto-refraction
Contact lens fitting room 15 5% CL assessments and dispensing
Minor procedure / laser room 24 7% YAG, intravitreal injections (Phase 2)
Day-case theatre + recovery (Phase 2) 50 16% Cataract phacoemulsification with IOL
Admin, staff, storage, sterilisation 34 11% Back-of-house functions
Total 320 100%

Core Equipment Schedule

The clinical equipment investment totals R 3.20 million in Phase 1,
with a further R 2.40 million committed to Phase 2 surgical capability.
All equipment is sourced from tier-1 global manufacturers under
five-year service contracts:

Equipment Manufacturer / Model Tier Qty Cost (R ‘000)
Spectral-domain OCT Zeiss Cirrus / Heidelberg Spectralis 1 850
Automated visual field analyser Humphrey HFA3 / Octopus 600 1 520
Corneal topographer / tomographer Pentacam / Topcon Aladdin 1 380
Non-mydriatic fundus camera + AI module Topcon / NIDEK AFC-330 1 340
Slit-lamp biomicroscope Haag-Streit BQ 900 3 285
Auto-refractor / keratometer Topcon / NIDEK combo 2 180
Non-contact tonometer Reichert / Canon 2 90
Digital lensmeter Nidek LM-7 / Topcon CL-300 1 55
Phoropter + chart projector Essilor / Topcon 3 145
YAG / SLT laser (Phase 2) Ellex / Lumenis 1 420
Phacoemulsification unit (Phase 2) Alcon Centurion / Bausch + Lomb 1 1,200
Operating microscope (Phase 2) Zeiss OPMI Lumera / Leica 1 650
Sterilisation autoclave + instrumentation Tuttnauer / Getinge 1 130
Total Equipment Investment Phase 1 + Phase 2 combined 5,245

6.3 Clinical Governance, Quality & Patient Safety

A documented Quality Management System (QMS) is central to both
clinical safety and investor assurance. The QMS comprises:

  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for every
    clinical pathway, developed against HPCSA guidelines and OSSA
    best-practice protocols.
  • Monthly morbidity & mortality review chaired
    by the Chief Medical Officer, with all adverse events, near-misses, and
    complications reviewed and corrective actions logged.
  • Outcome-metrics tracking including
    cataract-surgery visual-acuity outcomes, endophthalmitis rate, posterior
    capsule rupture rate, and refractive outcome precision — all benchmarked
    to published international standards.
  • Patient complaint and compliment register
    reviewed monthly, with root-cause analysis for every formal
    complaint.
  • Infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols
    for instrument sterilisation, surface decontamination, and theatre
    etiquette, audited quarterly.
  • Annual clinical audit by an external
    ophthalmologist not employed by the Company, with audit reports tabled
    at board meetings.

6.4 Technology, EMR & Data Protection (POPIA)

VisionCare operates on a single integrated technology stack anchored
by an ophthalmology-configured Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system
(shortlisted options include GoodX, Elixir-Live, and HealthOne). The EMR
integrates with diagnostic devices via DICOM interfaces so that OCT
scans, visual fields, and fundus photographs are automatically filed to
the patient record, eliminating transcription risk.

The practice-management layer handles real-time medical-scheme
eligibility verification, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) claim
submission, and reconciliation with scheme remittances. Point-of-sale
functionality extends to the optical retail side, with inventory tracked
at frame-SKU level.

POPIA compliance is embedded rather than bolted on: all patient data
is encrypted at rest and in transit, a registered Information Officer is
appointed at launch, a documented Data Processing Agreement is in place
with every third-party processor (including the cloud EMR vendor), and
an incident-response protocol addresses data-breach notification to both
the Information Regulator and affected data subjects within statutory
timelines.

Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of VisionCare Eye Clinic (Pty) Ltd.