Formal Outline

Student  Example  –  Formal  Essay  Outline    

Paper  topic  –  Radio  Frequency  Identification  in  hospitals).       *Note:  this  outline  is  not  without  errors,  but  is  used  to  show  the  formatting.      

III. Reduce  costs  throughout  the  medical  facility  –  track  items  in  “real  time”   A. Wasted  man-­‐hours  

1.  Medical  personnel  spend  countless  man-­‐hours  searching  for  medical  equipment  such  as   wheel  chairs,  portable  x-­‐ray  machines  (Revere,  2010,  pg.  28).   a. Basic  items  with  high  frequency  use  can  be  accounted  for  quickly  and  easily  without  

wasting  valuable  time.       b. Having  to  spend  even  a  few  extra  minutes  to  search  down  a  wheelchair  is  not  good  

use  of  time  for  medical  staff  and  RFID  allows  for  staff  to  pinpoint  the  exact  location   of  the  item  they  need.    

B. Faster  prep  of  patients   1. “Patients  are  given  a  regular  identification  bracelet  and  one  implanted  with  an  RFID  chip,  

allowing  them  to  be  tracked  at  the  various  steps  in  the  surgical  process”  (Secours,  2011,  p.   72)   a. Staff  knows  when  each  patient  is  ready  for  the  next  step  of  the  preparation  process.   b. Staff  does  not  need  to  check  with  one  another  about  the  patient  status.   c. Staff  does  not  need  to  ask  the  patient  the  same  questions  over  an  over  again.  

2. RFID  decreased  “surgical  prep  time  from  45  minutes  to  20  minutes,  by  providing  an  alert   to  staff  members  at  the  exact  moment  a  patient  leaves  a  surgical  room,  thereby  notifying   them  that  the  room  is  ready  to  be  cleaned  and  prepared  for  the  next  patient  (Secours,   2011,  p.  73).  

3. Finally  the  RFID  system  will  alert  staff  that  a  surgery  is  complete  and  the  patient  has  been   moved  to  recovery,  allowing  for  the  staff  to  prep  for  the  next  surgery  Secours,  2011,  p.   73).   a. Not  only  are  man-­‐hours  decreased,  but  patient  satisfaction  increases.   b. The  patient  does  not  have  to  continue  to  wait.  

C. Lawsuits  from  post-­‐surgery  equipment  loss   1. Surgical  nurses,  doctors,  assistants  already  have  a  system  to  account  for  medical  

instruments  and  supplies  used  in  surgery,  but  mistakes  happen  which  results  in  massive   lawsuits.       a. Recent  studies  noted  that  “mistakes  occur  in  1  of  every  1,000  to  1,500  

interabdominal  operations”  (Gawande,  et  al,  2003,  p.  63)   b. Since  the  items  are  all  RFID  tagged,  medical  professionals  can  easily  check  to  ensure  

all  instruments  are  accounted  for  after  surgery.   2. These  types  of  lawsuits  can  drop  drastically  with  the  use  of  RFID  taking.    

a. Medical  faculties’  payout  billions  in  lawsuits  from  post  operations  due  to  left  behind   medical  instruments  and  surgical  sponges  enclosed  in  patients  after  surgery   (Gawande,  M.D.,  2003).  

b. The  use  of  RFID  decreases  the  risk,  thus  decreases  costly  lawsuits.   c. RFID  protect  the  health  of  the  patient,  but  also  the  liabilities  related  to  surgery.  

D. Savings  examples   1. “St.  Olavs  Hospital  in  Trondheim,  Norway…  saved  $6  million…  by  tracking  hospital  scrubs  

with  RFID-­‐embedded  tags”  (Rand,  2011,  p.  14)   a. Even  hospital  uniform  tracking  would  save  money.    Since  many  employees  wear  a  

hospital  issue  uniform  that  they  do  not  own,  the  uniforms  could  be  tracked  and   accounted  for.      

b. Staff  would  have  to  check  out  the  uniform,  and  check  back  in  the  uniform.   2. One  hospital  system  in  Virginia  found  a  decrease  in  the  “incidence  of  lost  and  stolen  

equipment  by  50  percent”  (Secours,  2011,  p.  76)   a. The  inflated  cost  of  a  hospital  stay  should  be  drastically  affected  if  the  cost  would  not  

have  to  include  replacing  lost  and  stolen  items.   b. Hospitals  would  not  have  to  overstock  high  use  items,  as  the  items  would  be  

accounted  for  and  accessible.   E. Transition  –  Money  isn’t  the  only  thing  saved  –  lives  are  saved.  

Overall  topic  of  this  section  

2nd  Supporting  Idea   (directly  supports  topic  

of  reduced  costs  

1st  Supporting  Idea   (directly  supports  topic  

of  reduced  costs  

3rd    Supporting  Idea   (directly  supports  topic  

of  reduced  costs  

4th  Supporting  Idea   (directly  supports   topic  of  reduced  

costs  

Transitional   sentence  to  the   next  section  of   support  (RFID   saves  lives)  

Supporting   information  from  

source  

Explanation   of  the  source   information  

Supporting   information   from  source  

This  time,  the   student  started   with  his  own   ideas,  then   used  the   source  

information  to   support    

(this  method  is   preferred)