Self-study
Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates and require shorter hospital stays if they are housed in private rooms rather than semiprivate rooms. ███ ██ ███████████ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Patients in Woodville’s semiprivate-rooms-only hospital experience the same infection rates and lengths of stay as patients at nearby hospitals where most of the rooms are private, even though hospital patients tend to have lower infection rates and require shorter hospital stays when they are housed in private rooms.
Objective
The right answer will describe some factor that does one or more of the following: improves infection rates and lengths of stay at Woodville, worsens these metrics at the nearby hospitals with mostly private rooms, or shows why Woodville’s semiprivate rooms do not impact the metrics in question the way other hospitals’ semiprivate rooms do. This factor will serve to counteract the effects of the different room privacies to yield the same infection rates and lengths of stay across the hospitals.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Many of the ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████
This answer does the opposite of what we need. We might’ve been able to explain the nearly identical infection rates and stay lengths by saying that Woodville has superior doctors, but this answer takes away that possibility by saying that many of the doctors are the same.
b
Most of the ██████ █████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████
This might explain why Woodville’s room layout is different from those of the nearby hospitals, but it doesn’t help explain why the lengths of stay and rates of infection at Woodville are largely the same.
c
Infection is more ██████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████
This might help explain why infection rates tend to be worse among patients in semiprivate rooms, but it doesn’t help explain why that effect doesn’t make Woodville’s infection rates worse than those at nearby hospitals.
d
Woodville's hospital has █ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ █████ ████████ █████████
This offers an explanation of why Woodville has the same infection rates and stay lengths as nearby hospitals despite the difference in its floorplan: even though Woodville has only semiprivate rooms, they use them as though they were private whenever possible.
e
Woodville's hospital is ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████████████ ████████ ██████████
This doesn’t offer anything to counteract the impact we would expect semiprivate rooms to have on infection rates and stay lengths at Woodville in comparison to nearby hospitals.