Mountain View Community Hospital Case Study

1
Mountain View Community Hospital Case Study

• Group 1
• John Dillin
• Ian Marvel
• Joseph Neuman
• Jonathan Schug

2
Introduction

• At the end of each chapter in the Modern Database
  Management textbook, a case study is presented.
  This case study is based on a fictional hospital
  for purposes of applying database concepts and
  techniques to a real-world situation.

3
Description

• The hospital the case study is based on is
  Mountain View Community Hospital, MVCH for short.
  It is a not-for-profit general hospital whose
  goal is to provide cost-effective health care to
  its community.

4
Description (continued)

• MVCH uses computer-based support systems in
  several areas, including
• patient care administration
• clinical services
• financial management
• administrative services

5
Description (continued)

• MVCHs computer applications use a server/client
  technology. Most of MVCHs applications were
  purchased from external vendors, but a few have
  been developed internally. Most of these programs
  use relational database technology and are
  departmental. These relational databases each
  contain a series of tables.

6
Description (continued)

• To the right are examples of two of these tables.
  The PATIENT table contains data on current
  patients, while the PATIENT CHARGES table
  describes charges incurred by these patients.

Figure 1
7
Project Question 1

• What are some of the important benefits that MVCH
  should seek in using databases? Relate your
  response to the hospital environment.

8
Project Question 2

• What are some of the costs and risks of using
  databases that the hospital must manage carefully?

9
Project Question 3

• At the present time, MVCH is using relational
  database technology. Although this technology is
  appropriate for structured data such as patient
  or accounting data, it is less well suited to
  complex data such as graphical data and images.
  Can you think of some types of data maintained by
  the hospital that fit this latter category? What
  types of database technology might be better
  suited to these data types than relational?

10
Project Question 4

• How are data in the PATIENT and PATIENT CHARGES
  tables related? That is, how can a user find the
  relevant charges for a particular patient?

11
Project Question 5

• What are some ways the hospital could use the
  Internet?

12
Project Exercise 1

• Using the shorthand notation introduced in this
  cahpter, draw a diagram showing the relationship
  between PATIENT and PATIENT CHARGES.

13
Project Exercise 2

• Develop a metadata chart (see Table 1-1 in
  textbook) for the data attributes in the PATIENT
  and PATIENT CHARGES tables. Use at least those
  columns shown in Table 1-1, but you may include
  other metadata characteristics that you think are
  appropriate fro the management of data at
  Mountain View Community Hospital.

14
Project Exercise 3

• One of the important database views for the
  hospital is the Patient Bill form. Following is a
  highly simplified version of this view. Fill in
  the missing data in this view using the data from
  Figure 1.

15
Project Exercise 4

• Using the shorthand notation introduced in this
  chapter, draw a single diagram that represents
  the following relationships in the hospital
  environment.
• A HOSPITAL has on its staff one or more
  PHYSICIANs. A PHYSICIAN is on the staff of only
  one HOSPITAL.
• A PHYSICIAN may admit one or more PATIENTS. A
  PATIENT is admitted by only one PHYSICIAN.

16
Project Exercise 4 (continued)

• Each PATIENT may incur any number of CHARGEs. A
  particular CHARGE may be incurred by any number
  of PATIENTs.
• A HOSPITAL has one or more WARDs. Each WARD is
  located in exactly one HOSPITAL.
• A WARD has any number of EMPLOYEEs. An EMPLOYEE
  may work in one or more WARDs.

17
Project Exercise 5

• The goal of MVCH is to provide high-quality
  health care for its surrounding community, while
  containing costs that have been rising in
  accordance with national trends in recent years.
  How would a well-managed database help the
  hospital achieve its mission? Give some examples
  of how the use of databases in the hospital might
  improve health care quality or contain costs.

18
Jons Question

• What benefits would MVCH have available to it if
  it set up a Data Warehouse?

19
Johns Question

• How important is the use of a departmental
  database application in the MVCH?

20
Josephs Question

• What are some of the benefits that MVCH would
  gain through the implementation of databases?

21
Ians Question

• Currently, MVCH uses departmental databases.
  Explain why this is the appropriate choice for
  their applications.