The Case Study: Hospital Sterile Services
The Case Study: Hospital Sterile Services Part 1: Core Scenario The sterile services department of a large hospital manages the cleaning and sterilisation of surgical and other medical instruments used at various medical procedures such as medical operations in the hospital. The surgical instrument is organised in trays, each identified by a unique identification number. A medical procedure (operation) will typically use one or more of trays of surgical instruments. There are many types of medical operations which use several types of trays. The tray id is recorded in the procedure notes so that the history of any instruments used can be traced at any time in the future and cross-referenced to individual patients and medical personnel. The instruments do not have an ID, as it would be not cost effective to try to engrave codes on each of them (i.e. their alloy is too hard, instruments have various shapes, etc). Each procedure type requires a prescribed number of trays, each with a...