MOUNTAIN VIEW

COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
Database Technology Case Study
Project Questions
 Question #1

What are some of the

important benefits that
Mountain View Community
Hospital should seek in using
databases? As much as
possible, relate your response
to the hospital environment.
 Question #1

It is important for every company to

have a storeroom of data that is
allowable to be accessed by authorized
employees or even by customers on a
limited basis. Hospitals are divided into
several departments and a lot of
information such as patient details,
doctors schedule, room occupants and
so forth are to be shared.
 Question #1

Since the Mountain View Hospital

has applications including Patient
Care Administration, Clinical
Services, Financial Management and
Administrative Service and are
linked through a client- server
technology, their database
(Departmental Database) is suited to
their needs and capabilities.
 Question #1

It is only the matter of proper

implementation and standards that
has to be developed and changed.
The data acquired on databases
among different applications shall be
reliable and coherent so that there
will be consistency on the information
gained among patient name, patient
number, patient address, etc.
 Question #2

What are some of the

costs and risks of using
databases that the
hospital must manage
carefully?
 Question #2

They should take precaution on loss

of data integrity since the hospital
implements and has applications
purchased from outside vendors,
there is a need to hire and train
personnel to design and to
implement their database so that
there would be less data
inconsistency and duplication.
 Question #2

They should also cope with the

cost, management and
maintenance of database, given
that there is a need to keep up
and update the data their
handling particularly among
their patients information and
patients charges.
 Question #2

Alongwith the management, the

hospital should also have explicit
backup and recovery. Because
when damage and environment
catastrophe happen the
database should be secured and
recovered.
 Question #3

At present, Mountain View

Community Hospital 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 unstructured data
such as graphical data and images.
 Question #3

Can you think of some types of

data maintained by a hospital
that fit this latter category?
What types of database
technology might be better
suited to these data types rather
than relational?
 Question #3

Hospitals keep records such as

list of patients, patient details
and results, room occupations
and assigned doctors that are
dynamic, meaning, it changes
constantly and requires to be
updated as often as every day.
 Question #3

Itwould be very efficient for

Mountain View Community
Hospital to consider using
operational database.
Operational database
technology is designed to keep
data that needs to be collected
and modified on a daily basis.
 Question #4

How are data in the PATIENT and

PATIENT CHARGES table related?
That is, how can a user find the
relevant charges for a particular
patient?
 Question #4

The PATIENT and PATIENT CHARGES

shares the PATIENT NUMBER attribute.
The patient number serves as the
reference for the PATIENT TABLE. The
charges incurred by the patient is
referred to the patient through the
patient number.
 Question #5

What are some ways the

hospital could use the
internet?
 Question #5

Mountain View Community Hospital,

though it is a small and not-for-profit, it
is advisable for them to make use of
internet as much as other hospitals do.
Online Inquiry, hospital departments
contact numbers, list of doctors and
their specializations are few of those
that the hospital could provide through
the internet.
 Question #6

Give an example of how the

hospital could use each of
the types of databases
described in the chapter:
personal, workgroup,
departmental, enterprise,
and internet.
 Question #6

Personal databases can be

used for keeping the patients
records(names, diagnoses and
more), Workgroups for the
medical team that will be
conducting surgeries, and other
duties than need collaboration.
 Question #6

Department databases for the

workers, employees and
professional records and
Enterprise databases are
used to check the total activities
and business operations at the
facility.
PROJECT EXERCISES
 (1)
Database

Patient
Patient
Charges

Patient
Name
Item Amount
Patient
Descriptio
Number
n
Patient
Address Item Code
 (2)
Name Type Length Description
Name Alphanumeric 30 Patient Name
ID Integer 10 Patient Number
Address Alphanumeric 40 Patient Address
Code Integer 15 Item Code
Description Alphanumeric 30 Item Description
Amount Integer 6 Amount of Item
 (3)
Patient Name: Dolan, Mark
Patient Number: 4238
Patient Address: 818 River Run

Item Code Item Description Amount

200 Room Semi-Private 1600
275 Radiology 150
700 EEG Test 200
 (4)

Hospital Physician Patient Charge

Ward

Employee