PT9.S4.Q14 - A careful review of hospital fatalities

CoraMint

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if someone could share their understanding of this question. I was able to eliminate B, D, and E very quickly, but got tied up between A and C and ended up picking C. I can see why A is a good answer, but I'm having a harder time seeing why C is definitively wrong.

To me, the stimulus seems like it's saying that the equipment was not available during the review period. Thus adding the equipment will have no effect. I mean, I guess the stimulus doesn't explicitly say that the absence of equipment caused the result, but it seems sort of implied?

FixedDice

1. A caused C
2. B was absent when C occurred
3. Therefore, B wouldn't cause C

(C) is wrong not because the argument implies that B's absence caused C; it assumes that B does not also induce C. Sure, better training leads to declining fatalities. But wouldn't better training and a helpful equipment result in a larger decline? (C) is explaining something inapplicable.

_____Wale

C is wrong because it says "the evidence cited to show that a certain factor was absent...." This is inconsistent with the evidence in the stimulus. The stimulus only tells us that "Equipment that monitors a patient's oxygen and carbon dioxide levels was not available in most operating rooms"

Answer choice C says that these equipment were absent (completely unavailable), but that is not the case. They were just not widely used.

Answer choice A is correct because the fact these equipment were not available in most operating rooms during the review period, does not show that their increased used would not cut fatalities due to anesthesia.

Think about it this way: It is certainly possible for all the hospital fatalities, during the 20 year review period, to have occurred only in those operating rooms that had the equipment. In such a case, it becomes unclear whether the use of monitoring equipment cannot significantly cut fatalities due to anesthesia because we cannot ascertain whether or not the equipment played a role in reducing fatalities without an additional study.

Hope that helps!

CoraMint

@_____Wale said:
C is wrong because it says "the evidence cited to show that a certain factor was absent...." This is inconsistent with the evidence in the stimulus. The stimulus only tells us that "Equipment that monitors a patient's oxygen and carbon dioxide levels was not available in most operating rooms"

Answer choice C says that these equipment were absent (completely unavailable), but that is not the case. They were just not widely used.

Ahhhhh. Most. Duh. That's exactly what I was missing - thank you!