System Requirements
These requirements and sample reports are provided to assist in you in gaining an
understanding of the existing system and the hospital’s needs. You do not need to
implement these requirements nor all the reports.
User Requirements
- Every patient admitted has a unique patient id. If the patient is a koala, it will have also
have a koala tag. It may have a microchip. Animals including, but not limited to,
wallabies, kangaroos, and possums may have ear tags in one or both ears that
uniquely identify them (The tags should have the same number but should be able to
tell if one is missing). Turtles may also have a tag. Not all tag number formats will be the
same
- In addition to formal tags, some animals will have one or more alternate identifiers,
being either a Queensland Parks and Wildlife identifier, or transfer from or to another
facility such as Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, RSPCA, or Australia Zoo, these must all
be maintained and searchable.
- In addition to type, animals are sorted into ‘breeds’, of which there are nearly 1000 in
the current system. Each breed must be associated with exactly one ‘type’.
- All animal wildlife may be admitted more than once, if they are re-admitted their
previous patient number should be re-used, along with the date they were re- admitted
– all historical admissions should be maintained (and not over written).
- The database needs to record who brought in the animal, where it was found, including
the regional or local council area it was found it – reports are generated for particular
councils upon request. There should be a link between the postcode that the animal
was found in and the local council it belongs to.
- The system should be loss-less, no data should be over written.
- Aetiology is the term used to describe the diagnosis categories for the wildlife. Animals
can and will present with more than one aetiology. In addition, animals may be
diagnosed with multiple diagnoses within a category – e.g. an animal may have multiple
broken bones/anatomical issues.
- During treatment, the vets will put notes on the forms, this information should be
maintained where possible using searchable text fields
- A wildlife patient can be assigned a treatment, this could be multiple medicines, or
particular surgery or other actions. For medicine, the system should allow the start
and stop date of each medicine/treatment. A treatment will be uniquely identified for
patient, accession, and date it was prescribed.
- AZWH maintains a contact list – they have other hospitals, other zoos/wildlife parks,
government departments, other organizations, wildlife carers, vets, researchers,
volunteers and general public that have brought in a patient. For all contacts, AZWH
maintains, their first name, last name, title/salutation, email, phone number(s), street
address, suburb, state, country, postcode, and what sort of contact they are.