Information Systems for Business Professionals
Case Study for Assignment
The Case: Animal After Hour Services (AAHS)
"Animal After Hour Services" (AAHS) is a veterinary hospital that has been running for a few years in Brisbane Southside and Gold Coast.
The hospital was started by Dr Terry King as a small practice to help injured animals during after hours when the regular veterinary Practices would be closed. Most veterinarian practices in Brisbane and Gold Coast work Monday to Friday 7 am to 6 pm and Saturday half days, so if an animal owner experiences an emergency outside of those hours or on public holidays the Animal After Hour Services is there to help those owners and their animals.
A few example scenarios in which owners present their animals to the AAHS staff are snake bites, consumption of a foreign bodies like toys, balls, household chemicals, or consumption of toxic substances are chocolate, coffee or plant items. Other cases involve animals that may have injuries as a result of being attacked by other animals.
Dr Terry King along with his nephew Josh King started the first AAHS clinic at Compton Road in Underwood around 7 years ago. At that point the practice was really small and between the two veterinarian's and a few nursing staff was easy to manage.
However, it seems that Dr Terry had unknowingly unearthed an area where there was great demand, and as a result in a matter of last few years he has had to expand AAHS to other locations like Jindalee and Carrara. This expansion has resulted in Dr Terry employing a lot of other veterinarians and support staff to run the Branch offices (Practices). The organisation now employs 15 vets, 30 nurses and 10 admin staff, one handyman and a book keeper.
Dr Terry is excited about the growth but at the same time worried about the complexity and cost of the IT setup that will be required across the branches. He is concerned about how he can make systems shareable across sites, without unnecessary duplication. He is also worried about safety and security of data across sites, and logistical issues such as patient treatment notes, staff files, staff timesheets, payroll processing, and conducting regular staff meetings.
Sharing of patient notes is crucial, so if an owner presents their animal to different branches at different points of time, the treating veterinarian can easily access the previous treatment records. Dr Terry also wants an interface so that AAHS veterinarians can access animal treatment records from the animal's regular veterinarian's. He realises this may imply that a lot of veterinarians would have to agree to share this information and also ensure that the client and animal data are adequately protected while it is shared.
Dr Terry wants when an animal is at the hospital their owners can get online updates of their well being, as he feels that this will reduce the constant phone calls to practice's and also put the owners at ease.
Dr Terry also wishes that a client's data is stored in a secured location which they can access online so that clients can print / download a consolidated statement and treatment notes, as clients often require these to lodge pet insurance claims after the treatment has finished.
Dr Terry decides to engage you as a consultant. Your job is to provide him with solutions that address the following issues and provides advice on what needs to be implemented in the future.
Case Study Questions
1. In order to help AAHS management, define what information systems are and briefly explain how information systems are important to future operations at AAHS. Answering this question, explore the different kinds of information systems that can be beneficial to any small business.
2. Identify and list the specific business and system problems faced by AAHS