To submit:
1. Domain class diagram.
Produce an analysis class diagram focusing on the problem domain. At this point it is not required to be fully attributed. However it is important that you attempt to model as many of the entities as possible, and to ensure the correct multiplicity. A large amount of the required information is present in the OVERVIEW section of the case. However it is important to study the whole case as there may be other details or important context that is situated in other sections.
2. Decision Table.
Draw a decision table to capture the logic of determining the priority category for a call. This is explained in the interview section on page 6.
You may wish to follow the decision table examples/exercises used in the tutorials as a template and starting point for this exercise.
3. Activity Diagram.
Draw an activity diagram to show the flow of activity for the process of logging an emergency call and dispatching a response team. Most of this activity flow is explained in the interview section of the case on page 8. Two of the most relevant items have been highlighted in the case as a hint but other useful information may be present elsewhere. End the activity diagram with "Close Emergency Call" even though this may not explicitly be stated in the interview section highlighted.
4. Activity Diagram.
Drawan activity diagram to show the flow of activity for the process of supervisor actions on waiting emergencies. This describes the situation when an operator is attempting to dispatch a response team but no teams are available. As with previous questions, the most relevant section of the case has been highlighted as a hint.
Case
The following sections provide an overview of Rescue911,providing background to the business, problems experienced,and requirements for the new system. Additional detailedinformation is presented in the form of data gathered frominterviews with key stakeholders.
Overview
Rescue911 is an ambulance and emergency services company. The company operates a single 24-houremergency operations call center in which all calls toRescue911 are received and processed. Response teams aredispatched by call center operators. They are all trainedemergency medical dispatchers. Rescue911 hasapproximately 2000 EMTs (emergency medical technicians)working in these response teams. Response teams are locatedat 25 base stations that are distributed across the geographicregion serviced by Rescue911.As a private ambulance and emergency servicescompany, the assignment of response priorities and thecoordination of the dispatch process are core to Rescue911'svalue offering. The dispatcher plays a key role in matchingRescue911's response capability to emergency situations.Rescue911 knows that the overall effectiveness of the EMS system begins with the logging of emergency calls and the dispatch of response teams.
People that make use of Rescue911's services include subscribers and non-subscribers. Direct subscribers are individuals or families that subscribe directly to Rescue911and pay a monthly fee. Indirect subscribers are automatically subscribed to the services of Rescue911 as a result of their medical aid scheme, home insurance or life assurance policies. These medical aid and insurance companies are called providers. The indirect subscribers do not pay the monthlyfees; instead Rescue911 recovers monies from their providers by billing the providers directly for the services rendered. Non-subscribers can also make use of Rescue911'sservices i.e. Rescue911 will respond to all emergency calls received. However, non-subscribers will be billed for any emergency care provided to them.Rescue911 has seen significant growth in operations in recent years. They currently have 2 million subscribed members (direct and indirect), 2008 revenue was $500million, and in the first 6 months of 2009 they have responded to 125 000 emergency incidents, an average of 25emergencies per base station per day.
Organization Structure
Rescue911 has a flat organizational structure. Beyond the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) there are only three senior managers, the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. The responsibility of the Chief Medical Officer is to make sure that Rescue911'sdispatching and medical procedures adhere to the expectations of the National Association of EMS Physicians. The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the day to day business. He is in charge of the call center and all base stations. The call centers operators are emergency medical dispatchers certified by both national and international academies of emergency dispatching and have been trained in emergency telecommunications. Rescue911'sorganizational structure is depicted in Figure 1.
Problem Statement
The recent growth of Rescue911 has not come without its problems. Rescue911 has begun to receive numerous complaints about their services from subscribers and providers. They are also under increasing pressure from the government, hospitals, doctors, medical aids and insurance companies to properly account for their services. Typical problems include: spending too much time monitoring and coordinating response teams instead of focusing on the medical aspects of dispatching, lack of real-time information on EMT and response team availability, inability to confirm for callers whether a response to an emergency has been dispatched or to provide details on the response configuration, inability to determine which emergency calls have been closed / concluded and which are still in progress, under qualified teams are often dispatched and themes arriving at a scene are not adequately skilled to deal with the emergency situation, over qualified teams are being dispatched to noncritical incidents leading to poor utilization of skilled resources, lack of proper documentation of services provided at a scene to both subscribers and non-subscribers, inaccurate records of shifts worked by EMTs at the various base stations, incomplete records of EMTs and their qualifications, and lack of metrics for performance management especially in relation to response turnaround times.
Rescue911 management has determined that many of the problems result from inadequate systems that have not kept pace with their growth rate. They aim to solve these problems through the introduction of a new information system. The system is to be called ERIS (emergency response information system).
The new ERIS system is aligned to Rescue911'sobjective to maintain the infrastructural capacity needed to deliver comprehensive emergency service solutions. Through the implementation of ERIS, Rescue911management aim to ensure the company can realize its key performance objective to standardize the process of call logging, ensure accuracy of response team dispatching, and improve pre-hospital treatment and customer satisfaction with response performance.
The system will also provide for improved internal operational effectiveness, more efficient utilization of response teams, and better management control over base stations.
There will be three groups of users of ERIS:
1. Call Center Operators, the emergency medicaldispatchers, who will use ERIS to log emergencycall details, dispatch one or more response teams, and follow up on calls dispatched. Supervisors area type of operator who are also able to deal with those emergency calls to which operators are unable to dispatch a response due to response team unavailability, and to authorize the cancellation of an emergency response
2. EMTs that will report for duty (clock-in) at the beginning of their shift by logging into ERIS and will also use ERIS to input details about patient care provided at emergency scenes
3. Rescue911 managers who will use ERIS to produce certain reports. These reports included demand reports, schedule reports as well as exception reports. Managers are also responsible for maintenance of master file data.
Functional Requirements
ERIS will be implemented using a phased approach. Based on the needs identified, the following requirements have been defined for inclusion in the first-phase of the ERIS project (see Table 1), while later phases will incorporate billing, accounting and finance, vehicle and asset management, and a mobile, PDA based, EMT-patient caresub-system.The above requirements will be met through the following four sub-systems:
1. Computer aided dispatch sub-system (CAD) -Primary users: Operators and Supervisors.
a. Log emergency calls received.
b. Dispatch, track and manage emergency responses.
c. Reporting and online querying.
2. Base Station management sub-system (BSMS) -Primary users: EMTs and Managers.
a. Base station records management.
b. EMT records management
c. Response team records management
d. EMT shift logging (clocking in and out)
e. Reporting
3. Subscriber management sub-system (SMS) -Primary users: Managers
a. Direct and indirect subscriber recordsmanagement
b. Reporting
4. Electronic patient care reporting sub-system(EPCR) - Primary users: EMTs
a. Capture patient care data
b. Reporting