Programming Solution Part 3: Array Structure Proposal
Wayne Murray
Algorithms and Logic for Computer Programming (PRG 211)
November 14, 2011
Professor Sprouse

Array Structure Proposal
In my proposal from week two I would want to find the total number of units per patient for each procedure code billed by the doctor. A parallel array consisting of a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional array in this case would be a good way to solve this problem in a simplified code format. An array would also allow all the data the user wants to input to be stored in the program for multiple queries to be run without having to re-input the data. So this module of the program will allow the user to input all the different procedure codes billed the provider and return a units-per-patient statistic for the searched procedure code.
Assuming the data that the user will input is all for the same provider, the following variables will need to be declared: the procedure code, the number of patients, and the number of units billed. Two arrays will be declared as well, one for the procedure code and one for the number of patients and units. The procedure code variable and array must be setup with a string data type since there are some procedure codes that have alpha characters. The number of patients and the number of units variables, as well as their corresponding array will be setup as integer data types. Since both of those variables are of the same data type they can be combined into one two dimensional array. These two arrays will be parallel because they will be the same size and the subscript is related (Venit & Drake, p. 293, 2011). A real data type is used to calculate the units per patient. In a real life scenario, there are tens of thousands of medical procedure codes for providers to use when billing. For this example, however I will limit the size of the array to five procedure codes. One final variable K will be defined to search the array for the subscript values needed to retrieve the data from the arrays.
Once the information is input into the arrays, the user can search for a particular procedure code to retrieve the information. This would also fit well as a module in a larger program, with some modifications. The data that is input would be passed into this module for processing and the output would be the units per patient by procedure code. Since my larger program solution is to compare providers units per patient ratios, the larger program could call this module’s methods to get the data to be compared.
This small program, or module, is very helpful to the functioning of the overall program. It is also easy to manipulate because the data is stored in arrays, and any future programmer that may need to modify this can easily follow how the data is stored and accessed. The below pseudocode demonstrates how this program will function.

Begin
Declare string Procedure, ProcCode[5]
Declare integer Patients, Units, PatientInfo[5,2], K, L, Found
Declare real UpP
For (K = 0; K < 5; K++) Write “Enter the procedure code billed by the provider.” Input Procedure Set ProcCode[K] = Procedure Write “Enter the number of patients and the number of units billed.” For (L = 0; L < 2; L++) Input PatientInfo[K,L] End For End For Set Found = 0 Set K = 0 Write “Enter the procedure code to search for.” Input Procedure While (Found == 0) AND (K < 5) If ProcCode[Procedure] == Procedure Set Found = 1 End If Set K = K + 1 End While If Found == 1 Write “The procedure code you searched for is: “ + ProcCode[K] //Could also have used the variable Procedure in the above line Write “The number of patients billed this procedure is: “ + PatientInfo[K,0] Set Patients = PatientInfo[K,0] Write “The number of units billed by this provider is: “ + PatientInfo[K,1] Set Units = PatientInfor[K,1] Set UpP = Units / Patients Write “The number of units per patient for this procedure code is: “ + UpP Else Write “This procedure code was not billed by this provider.” End

References
Venit, S., & Drake, E. (2011). Prelude to Programming: Concepts and Design (5th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.