Lawrence Smith Animal Rescue Hospital.

Lawrence Smith Animal Rescue Hospital

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The Lawrence Smith Animal Rescue Hospital was founded by a Melbourne vet surgeon in 1973 and is located in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne. The hospital specialises in rescued animals rather than personal pets or commercial veterinary cases. Organisations such as the RSPCA, local councils, wildlife rescue groups and the general public bring injured animals found out on the streets, parks, and other locations. Commonly, the rescued animals are native wildlife species such as possums, flying foxes and birds. Its also common for stray pets such as cats and dogs that have no identification to be brought in. The hospital takes these animals in, triages their condition and treats any acute injuries or diseases they may have. This is done free of charge to the public. Animals are kept in the hospital until stabilised, and then passed on to animal shelters and carers in the community for full rehabilitation. In the case of native wildlife species, these animals are then released back into their habitat. It is illegal to release non-native species into the wild, though, and these animals (mostly dogs and cats) are made available for the public to adopt as pets. In some cases, however, the animal either is too injured or sick, or doesnt respond to treatment and they need to be euthanized. Funding The hospital has several funding sources, including regular payments from local councils for providing veterinary services to stray animals caught by council rangers. As a not-for-profit organisation, the hospital also receives several large philanthropic donations from trusts and bequests and other animal welfare funding organisations. The hospital also has a regular yearly donation drive soliciting funds from the general public. Recent Controversy In 2012, a volunteer vet nurse with the hospital was involved in a dispute with senior management at the hospital. The nurse had been involved in some questionable decisions regarding the care of some animals and Sasha Gordon, the general manager at the hospital decided that it was best that the nurse be let go. Unfortunately, the meeting with the nurse to inform her that her volunteer services, provided for free, would no longer be required didnt go well. The nurse felt particularly aggrieved with the organisation and with Sasha in particular. A year after the nurse left, she went to the news media with a story alleging that the hospital had excessively high rates of euthanasia. The reason for this, she alleges, was that in chasing funds from local councils, and in the interests of minimising costs, decisions were made by hospital management to systematically euthanize animals instead of treating them when this would have been a viable option. Councils pay a rate per animal, and this is not contingent on a given outcome: the hospital is paid regardless of whether the animal recovers or is euthanized. The nurse further alleged that euthanized animals were sold to pet food manufacturers. Her assertion was that by maximising income from councils by taking as many animals as possible, minimising costs by euthanizing rather than treating them, and then making more income by selling the carcasses, the hospitals business model incentivised euthanasia over treatment. The hospital strenuously denied these allegations. In particular, the claim of selling ethanized animals to pet food manufacturers was shown to be clearly untrue, as it would be illegal (not to mention unethical). The hospital management also strongly Assignment Two Business Intelligence Application Design FIT5195 Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing 6 denied any policy of euthanasia over treatment. The stories in the news media were particularly hurtful to the volunteer vet staff who strived, for free, to treat and save as many animals as possible. For them, euthanasia is a very last resort. However, despite the lack of basis to the nurses claims, the media stories had an impact on the hospital. In particular, Sasha was frustrated by the inability to get good quality data about outcomes to show how their rates of survival compared against other vet services. This meant that they couldnt respond to the claims as effectively as Sasha would have liked and as a consequence, donations from the public slowed, and some donor organisations had asked questions about how their money was being spent. The Need for Business Intelligence The situation described above has convinced Sasha that she needs better information, not just to respond to that specific controversy, but more generally to better understand the organisation and its operations. Sasha has requested a BI system to be developed that can address several questions: What are the sources of animals being brought in to the hospital? Is it largely from local councils? The general public? The wildlife rescue industry? How has this mix changed over time? What kinds of animals are treated over time? Does the mix of animals change seasonally? What are the outcomes for different kinds of animals? What are the outcomes for paid versus volunteer vet staff? What is the euthanasia rate, and how does this compare against an industry benchmark? What is the current funding mix from different sources? Which councils provide the most business? Which philanthropic organisations are most generous? What is the profile of donors from the general public, and how has this changed over time? What Awaits you: On-time delivery guarantee Masters and PhD-level writers Automatic plagiarism check 100% Privacy and Confidentiality High Quality custom-written papers

Lawrence Smith Animal Rescue Hospital.