Subject: Re: Arthur I have porting question sir!
From: Scott Johnson (sjohnson@akghetto.com)
Date: Sun Mar 17 2002 - 16:20:02 AKST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Corliss" <arthur@corlissfamily.org>
To: "Eric Fortner" <emf33@gci.net>
Cc: "aklug" <aklug@aklug.org>
Sent: 17 March, 2002 13:53
Subject: Re: Arthur I have porting question sir!
>
> 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 work for a bank and I am involved in beta-testing our new main
customer-service system, which is just Netscape interfacing with a database
backend. It works quite well and everything is done over SSL. Eventually
when we're done being guinea pigs, the system will be deployed company-wide.
>
> > 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
>
>
Banks are regulated just as much as Healthcare, so if it works for us I
don't see why it wouldn't in this case. True it would be difficult coming
up with something from scratch, but it could save some overhead ($$ wise).
Anywho... my $.02.
Scott
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