Computer Programmer/Web Needed SoCal

[Baconator]

I run a small business in Southern California, and I need some software written for some specific duties. We are debating on branching into some new technology and want to see how we would go about getting started.

Basically, what I have right now is a program that uses an Access database to pool data and create invoices. What I need is a similar program that is more robust and able to do more. Any help?

[Deadbolt]

Hi there, PM sent with a few questions.

[Baconator]

Cool, responded.

[Baconator]

Bump, anybody else? I haven't heard back yet.

[bigmike82]

So are you looking for just an invoice generating program? Would you mind posting more details here?

[Baconator]

What my company does is copy medical records for hospitals and clinics. We copy these records for attorneys, insurance companies, etc. Whenever a copy of the records are made we have to log the request (who it is for, if it is insurance of something of the like). We also generate an invoice based on this information. This data is then (at the end of the day) FTP'd or emailed back to our corporate office, where we are able to apply payments and dump the sales data into our back end version of the software. The software is old and cumbersome, it takes a long time for the program to extract data out of the database. The back end system also dumps invoice data into Quickbooks for record keeping purposes.

I need a more robust system that does all of this more quickly. I also need a better interface with Quickbooks, the current process does no matching of incoming payments with their proper invoices in Quickbooks, it just dumps data as a JE depending on the site. I need to add the ability to scan PDF files to attach to the individual patients records and would need to have a log of who looked at those files. I know am I am explaining it kind of oddly, so I apologize.

So I guess here it is:
I need to be able to create invoices at my satellite locations (the hospitals). Attached to the customer history in this program I would like to be able to scan copies of their medical records. I need to have the data created in the field to be able to be sent back to my office so I can apply payments and interface with Quickbooks. I may or may not have a constant internet connection at each site, so I would need something capable of both.
Thanks

[Baconator]

Anybody? Or can you point me to a reliable place to find someone?

[bigmike82]

That's a pretty complex program you'll want.

Fortunately, Quickbooks has an API, so a competent programmer should be able to take care of this. I would estimate that you budget about 10 - 15 hours of dev work, plus maybe another 5 of debugging / QC.

Would 5k be unreasonable for your budget? What kind of timeline are you looking at?

[Baconator]

That's a pretty complex program you'll want.

Fortunately, Quickbooks has an API, so a competent programmer should be able to take care of this. I would estimate that you budget about 10 - 15 hours of dev work, plus maybe another 5 of debugging / QC.

Would 5k be unreasonable for your budget? What kind of timeline are you looking at?

I think 5k is doable (pending approval of the owner after all the specifics were gone over), would need to sit down and go over the specifics of everything we would need it to do. Would also need to work out some sort of support deal for the future.

[command_liner]

After 23 years in a similar line of business, I am out a job and looking for
work.

Most of the pieces you are looking for are around and not all that expensive.

By far, by a wide margin, the hardest part of this project will be getting a
good specification. By "good" I mean something a competent programmer
can read, then create a functional description, test cases, automated
tests and similar things.

Look carefully at your acceptance criteria. How do you know when the
project is done? Along this line, be really sure you have good test
data. HIPAA will make it so you _cannot_ just hand off 10,000 patient
histories to a programming crew for testing and debugging.

Do you have a target transaction speed for extraction from the database
or a target production rate for finished product? Does the work have to
be sorted and batched by doctor, hospital, medical group, zip code,
billing unit, time in, overdue status, cost, medicade rate or anything
else?

Does the scanned document need to have OCR so you can do automated
checks for drug, symptom, doctor, hospital or other correlations?

PM me if you are interested in a project manager.

[bigmike82]

Gotcha.

Let me see if any of my guys are interested/capable. I'll shoot you a PM if so.