Question

Question 5: Conceptual Design (25 marks)

The Felicity Stillwell Hospital (FSH) is a small hospital located in the southern suburbs of Perth, specialising in the health care of elderly patients. As the first phase of a complete information systems redevelopment, you have been contracted to design the database that will support its data and processing requirements. Depending on how well you perform, you may be asked to implement the design at some later time.

Detailed information on the data recorded, maintained and accessed by hospital staff to support the management and operations of the hospital is described below (see FSH Detailed Requirements, FSH Processing Requirements and FSH Sample Forms and Reports below), including some of the paper forms and reports currently in use, and the main transaction requirements are summarised there. This description of data and processing should be the basis for your design.

What you have to do:

1. Create an entity-relationship diagram showing the data requirements of the system. Your ERD should be able to be implemented in a relational DBMS. You should use the ERD notation we have been using in the lectures, and should include a legend to explain the notation. You should include attributes in the ERD. The use of a drawing tool such as Visio will make this task easier. However, whichever tool you use, you must copy and paste the ERD into a word-processed document. This is because your tutor might not have access to the tools you have used. Please note that hand-drawn ERDs are not acceptable.

2. List and explain any assumptions you have made in creating the data model.

Some important things to note:

1. Part of understanding a system at sufficient enough detail to model well, involves asking appropriate questions. If you are not sure about some detail of the case study, you should ask on the Discussion Forum in LMS.

2. The University email server strips out any Visio (.vsd) files that are sent; even if they are included in a zip archive. So, if you want to send a draft of your design to your lecturer by email, you will need to change the extension to something other than .vsd (.blah works well) or paste the diagram into a word document.

FSH Detailed Requirements

Wards

FSH has 17 wards with a total of 240 beds available for short and long-stay patients, and an outpatient clinic. Each ward is uniquely identified by a number (for example Ward 11) and also has a ward name (for example, Orthopaedic), location (E-Block), total number of beds, and telephone extension number (for example, Extn 7711).

Staff

FSH has a Medical Director, who has overall responsibility for the management of the hospital. The Medical Director maintains control over the use of the hospital resources (including staff, beds and supplies) in the provision of cost-effective treatment for all patients.

FSH has a Personnel Officer who is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate number and type of staff are allocated to each ward and the outpatient clinic.

The information stored on each member of staff includes a staff number, name (first and last), full address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, tax file number (TFN), position held, current salary, and salary scale. It also includes each staff member’s qualifications (which includes date of qualification, type, name of institution), and work experience details (which includes the name of the organisation, position and start and finish dates).

The type of employment contract for each member of staff is also recorded including the number of hours worked per week, whether the member of staff is on a permanent or temporary contract, and the type of salary payment (weekly/monthly).

An example of an FSH form used to record the details of a member of staff called Moira Samuel working in Ward 11 is shown in Figure 1 below.

Each ward and the outpatient clinic has a member of staff with the position of Charge Nurse. The Charge Nurse is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the ward/clinic. The Charge Nurse is allocated a budget to run the ward and must ensure that all resources (staff, beds, and supplies) are used effectively in the care of patients. The Medical Director works closely with the Charge Nurse to ensure the efficient running of the hospital.

A Charge Nurse is responsible for setting up a weekly staff roster, and must ensure that the ward/clinic has the correct number and type of staff on duty at any time during the day or night. In a given week, each member of staff is assigned to work an early, late or night shift.

As well as the Charge Nurse, each ward is allocated senior and junior nurses, doctors and auxiliaries. Specialist staff (for example, consultants, podiatrists) are allocated to several wards or the clinic.

An example of an FSH report listing the details of the staff allocated to ward 11 is shown in Figure 2 below.

Patients

When a patient is first referred to the hospital he or she is allocated a unique patient number. At this time, additional details of the patient are also recorded including the name (first and last name), address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, marital status, date registered with the hospital, and the details of the patient’s next-of-kin.

Patient’s Next-of-Kin

The details of the patient’s next-of-kin are recorded, which includes the next-of-kin’s full name, relationship to the patient, address, and telephone number.

Local Doctors

Patients are normally referred to the hospital for treatment by their local doctor. The details of local doctors are held including their full name, provider number, address, and telephone number. The provider number is unique. An example of an FSH patient registration form used to record details of a patient called Anne Phelps is shown in Figure 3 below.

Patient Appointments

When a patient is referred by his/her doctor to attend FSH, the patient is given an appointment for an examination by a hospital consultant.

Each appointment is given a unique appointment number. The details of each patient’s appointment are recorded, and include the name and staff number of the consultant undertaking the examination, the date and time of the appointment and the examination room (for example, Room E252).

As a result of the examination, the patient is either recommended to attend the outpatient clinic or is placed on a waiting list until a bed can be found in a ward.

Outpatients

The details of outpatients are stored and include the patient number, name (first and last name), address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and the date and time of the appointment at the Outpatient Clinic.

In-patients

The Charge Nurse and other senior medical staff are responsible for the allocation of beds to patients on the waiting list. The details of patients currently placed in a ward and those on the waiting list for a place on a ward are recorded. This includes the patient number, name (first and last name), address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, marital status, the details of the patient’s next-of-kin, the date placed on the waiting list, the ward required, expected duration of stay (in days), date placed in the ward, date expected to leave the ward, and the actual date the patient left the ward, when known.

When a patient enters the ward he or she is allocated a bed with a unique bed number. An example of an FSH report listing the details of patients allocated to Ward 11 is shown in Figure 4 below.

Surgical and Non-Surgical Supplies

FSH maintains a central stock of surgical (for example, syringes, sterile dressings) and non-surgical (for example, plastic bags, aprons) supplies. The details of surgical and non-surgical supplies include the item number and name, item description, quantity in stock, reorder level, and cost per unit. The item number uniquely identifies each type of surgical or non-surgical supply. The supplies used by each ward are monitored.

Ward Requisitions

When required, the Charge Nurse may obtain surgical, non-surgical, and pharmaceutical supplies from the central stock of supplies held by the hospital. This is achieved by ordering supplies for the ward using a requisition form. The information detailed on a requisition form includes a unique registration number, the name of the member of staff placing the requisition and the number and name of the ward. Also included is the item or drug number, name, description, dosage and method of administration (for drugs only), cost per unit, quantity required, and date ordered. When the requisitioned supplies are delivered to the ward, the form must be signed and dated by the Charge Nurse who initiated the order. An example of an FSH requisition form used to order supplies of morphine for ward 11 is shown in Figure 5 below.

Suppliers

The details of the suppliers of the surgical, non-surgical, and the pharmaceutical items are stored. This information includes the supplier’s name and number, address, telephone, and fax number. The supplier number is unique for each supplier.

FSH Processing Requirements

The following high-level transactions are undertaken to ensure that the appropriate information is available to enable the staff to manage and oversee the day-to-day running of FSH. Each transaction is associated with a specific function within the hospital. These functions are the responsibility of members of staff with particular job titles (positions). The main user or group of users of each transaction is given in brackets at the end of the description of each transaction. Your design should be able to support all of these transactions.

a) Create and maintain records recording the details of members of staff (Personnel Officer)

b) Search for staff who have particular qualifications or previous work experience (Personnel Officer)

c) Produce a report listing the details of staff allocated to each ward (Personnel Officer)

d) Create and maintain records recording the details of patients referred to the hospital (all staff)

e) Create and maintain records recording the details of patients referred to the out-patient clinic (Charge Nurse)

f) Produce a report listing the details of patients referred to the out-patient clinic (Charge Nurse and Medical Director)

g) Create and maintain records recording the details of patients referred to a particular ward (Charge Nurse)

h) Produce a report listing the details of patients currently located in a particular ward (Charge Nurse and Medical Director)

i) Produce a report listing the details of patients currently on the waiting list for a particular ward (Charge Nurse and Medical Director)

j) Create and maintain records recording the details of suppliers for the Hospital (Medical Director)

k) Create and maintain records detailing requisitions for supplies for particular wards (Charge Nurse)

l) Produce a report listing the details of supplies provided to specific wards (Charge Nurse and Medical Director)

Answer 1

Please find below the steps to create the ERD as per the given instructions and requirements:

Step 1: Identify the Entities:

1. Ward: To store the ward details

2. Staff: To store the staff details

3. Qualification: Weak Entity having Staff as Owner

4. Experience Weak Entity having Staff as Owner

5. Employment_Contract : To store the employee contract details

6. Appointment: To store the appointment details

7. Patient: To store the patient details

8. Patient -> InPatient: Weak entity having Patient as strong entity

9. Next_of_kin: Weak entity having Patient as strong entity

10. Local_Doctor: To store the local doctor details

11. Stock: To store the stock items

12. WardRequisite: To store the ward orders

13. Supplier: To store the supplier details

14. WardStaff: To store the ward staff

Step 2: Identify attributes for entities:

· Ward(Ward_no, Ward_name, location, total_beds, tele_extension_no)

· Staff(Staff_number, First_name, Last_name, Suburb, State, Postcode, Telephone_number, DoB, Gender, TFN, Position, Current_salary, Salary_scale)

· Qualification(Staff_No, date_of_qualification, Type, name_of_institution)

· Experience(Staff_No, Organisation, Position, Start_Date , Finish_Date)

· Employment_Contract (Staff_No, Per_week_hour, Contract_mode, payment_type)

· Patient(Patient_ID, First_name, Last_name, StreetAddress, Suburb, State, Postcode, telephone_number, DoB, Gender, Marital_status, Registration_Date, Next_of_kin, Local_Doctor_Number)

· Inpatient(Patient_ID ,Waiting_start_date, waiting_ward_no, expected_duration, ward_placing_date, expected_leave_date, Actual_leave_date, Bed_no)

· Next_of_kin(Patient_ID, Full_name, Relationship, StreetAddress, Suburb, State, Postcode, Telephone_number)

· Local_Doctor(Full_name, Provider_number, StreetAddress, Suburb, State, Postcode ,Telephone_number)

· Appointment(Appointment_no ,Patient_no, Staff_ID, Date_Time, Examination_Room)

· Stock(Item_no, Name, Type, Description, Quantity_in_stock, Reorder_level, Cost_per_unit, Supplier_number)

· WardRequisite(Requisition_No, Ward_No, Order_Date, Staff_Name, Item_No, Units, PerUnitCost, Received_Date, Received_by)

· Supplier(Supplier_number, name, address, telephone, fax_number)

Step 3: ERD for final Entities:

Step 4: Legends and notations:

Below are the notations used in ERD:

1. Entities:

2. Identifying relation N:1 between two entities (relation between strong entities):

3. Non-Identifying relation N:1 between two entities (relation between weak and strong entities):

Step 5: Assumptions in creating ERD:

· One Staff member will have one or more Experience record.

· One Staff member will have one or more Qualification record.

· One Staff will have one type of Employment_Contract

· Ward has many staffs with different roles.

· One item is supplied by one supplier only.

· Outpatient is recorded as Patient as there is nothing additionally recorded for that patient. The patients who are in-patient are stored under Inpatient entity to have additional attributes in it.