Subject: Re: Arthur I have porting question sir!
From: Arthur Corliss (arthur@corlissfamily.org)
Date: Sun Mar 17 2002 - 13:53:51 AKST
On Sun, 17 Mar 2002, Eric Fortner wrote:
> I figured the cost would be 6 times that! ($500)
I'm thinking multiples of your estimate, actually. Even the contract
companies are paying good programmers $30+ (and that's low-balling it). At 6
times $500, that means they'd only have about ten hours to write the app. And
you haven't even covered the management costs, profit margin, etc. In all
honesty, the application you're trying to replace probably took $50,000+ to
produce (assuming it's a solid, production-ready application). Programmers,
project managers, tech writers, etc., all cost money.
> The doctors and some labs in Colorado have been making
> noise on a newer more efficient way of doctors and lab-owners
> comspiring on work load. When I was home @ Xmass I talked with
> their group on how linux can take them to that level by distributing
> the bills and patient records on-line getting rid of hard copy paper
> and adminstrative{managerial hords} between them......
> I had approached with an open-office aspect of their offices mixed instead
> of being closed.......more over for communications between doctors and
> lab-techs too...
>
> Their is a very solid business case here, however it needs to be planned and
> discussed further when I go back down, this is why I am trying to get what a
> firm would be charging at minimal expense to start a ball rolling on a web based
> front-end [perl,php,....] to a data-base backend [MySQL.....}
No offense, but I think you'll find that you're opening a whole new can of
worms, especially with the upcoming HIPAA compliance deadlines coming soon.
What is your infrastructure specs going to be? Are you going to have everyone
access the system via RAS, or are you brave enough to attempt secure access
over public networks? Beyond security you also have data integrity. You have
operations costs (training the users, administration of the servers, help
desk, etc.) as well.
The only real plus you have here is that you've got a group of people that may
be willing to share the costs. If they could quantify the man hours lost by
the current system, as well as support costs and so on, they could probably
justify the cost of this project. But whatever you do, *don't* low-ball your
estimate. It'll make everyone disgruntled as the bills mount.
One other note of caution: most of the companies up here capable of putting a
web front-end on a database don't have a freaking *clue* about security, and
with HIPAA, you can't afford to make any mistakes in that arena. Going off of
some web jockey's estimate would be a serious mistake. You need a company
that can offer more than some CGI/HTML experience, you need a company that
knows networks and systems, that have qualified DBAs and security auditors.
Without that, you're going to have a world of trouble, all the way up to the
federal level.
> I should say the current platform is not costing any monetary loss but may be adding
> some grey-ish attribs to my father and the others........... ;)
> They have learned, as have I that open-source/linux means nothing like free
> beer, the bottom line to them is money. People are willing to pay for the software,
> they cut preps/make teeth for living not software.....so up front/digging pockets
> is expected. The software that is supposed to be trying to do this is just plain bad
> stuff.......TigerView is supposed to be an app that intergrates with word...notice the
> word "SUPPOSED"......so Arthur there is a road being made and you answered what questions
> I have posed to you, thank you!
I hope you have some success with this, and I hope I'm not coming off as too
negative. I just want you to be aware of how large and complex an issue this
can be. Couple that with the federal regulations and compliance deadlines,
you can't treat this as any old application. The bar is set much higher than
that in the healthcare industry.
--Arthur Corliss
Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
Digital Mages -- http://www.digitalmages.com/
"Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
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