Meet Alex Vargas: Senior NextGen Development Consultant

Alex Vargas, a Senior NextGen Development Consultant at TempDev, is the guy everyone turns to for questions about their NextGen database. His diverse business background and proclivity for numbers bring a holistic view to his work that other developers might not have. He is also well known for being a sports fanatic and quite the data savant.

His path originated in Business Administration and Finance with an education from Florida International University in Miami. From there, his journey took him everywhere from operating as a real estate professional to owning an auto tire and body shop.

He found his way to TempDev when they were hunting for a healthcare IT consultant who also spoke Spanish in the Miami area, and he has been here ever since.

"I've loved the company from the beginning. More than a company or a team, it's a family. Everyone at TempDev is so supportive and caring; it's unique to any other environment I have experienced throughout my career."

Alex Vargas is a calm, cool, collected — and highly talented — development consultant that works with healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes to make sure their NextGen EHR & EPM instance is up to snuff.

He spends his days creating and modifying code, reports, and templates and providing general support for all clients with NextGen needs. Known as the go-to guy for solving complex database issues at TempDev, he works directly with clients and project managers to build and customize reports and templates for any need.

"I like to help clients to troubleshoot all types of issues, but especially those that are complex and particularly hard to solve. The process of digging through the data and the back-end code to find the culprit responsible for their problem is one of my favorite parts of the job. That feeling you get when you figure out something complicated is what I am here for."

When one of TempDev's clients acquired an additional local practice to expand their operations, Alex was ready to dive in and ensure that NextGen had the clinic's previous EHR data through a data conversion and was effectively configured.

His engagement included helping to implement the newly acquired practice to their client's instance of NextGen. This task included new workflows, training, data conversions, and the process of writing custom scripts for new features, which was both challenging and exciting for Alex. 

"Digging through the legacy EHR data, analyzing it, normalizing it, and developing scripts to place it into NextGen EHR was cool and challenging in and of itself. There was so much scrubbing and data mapping that needed to be done to make this conversion successful. It needed to happen smoothly for this physician and so many issues got fixed along the way in this project. Those are my favorite types of projects."

A NextGen Certified Professional, Alex Vargas has experience working in both the front and back end of NextGen. During his tenure at TempDev, he started as an implementation and training consultant and migrated to a developer, providing him with unique insight into TempDev's client's needs. One of the longest working relationships he's had with a client has lasted eight years — a testament he attributed to his willingness to solve any problem, no matter how complex.

Alex transitioned from implementation to developer gradually. As an implementation consultant, he started to execute upgrades and help with other technical tasks. He liked it so much that he taught himself NextGen Template Editor and SQL, with some help from his teammates, and transitioned into a full-time developer role.

He also enjoys working on NextGen upgrades and particularly enjoyed a time where he worked with multiple clients on upgrading to a newer application version due to MIPS government regulations.

"There were so many things I liked about that project. Getting to know all the different NextGen clients, helping them get their systems upgraded, learning how to do the upgrade itself, interfacing with the clients themselves, and coming out of it all with more knowledge about that specific upgrade was so much fun."

His other favorite type of ongoing project? Scoring in sports on the court or field. His favorite sports to play are football, soccer, hockey, and basketball. If he's not playing himself, you can find him cheering for Miami teams in each of the former sports, except for soccer, where his loyalties lie with RC Barcelona.

To shed a little more light on what makes Alex tick, he'll tell you that the most beautiful thing he has ever seen is a Puerto Rican sunset while on vacation. He once rented a cabin on a hill in Culebra with his fiance, and to this day, it's the best vacation he has ever taken.

Last but not least, he's from a big family, and as one of six siblings. His dad instilled in him his hard worth ethic and constantly inspires him. "He raised six kids, was a loving father, and sent every one of us to college. How he managed that, I'll never know!"

If you're interested in getting to work with talented consultants like Alex Vargas and see how they can improve your NextGen EHR & EPM experience, contact TempDev here.