Hospital Z has a high percentage of follow up surgeries.

Question

15. Hospital Z has a high percentage of follow up surgeries. Those are surgeries that have to be done after the first surgery is not successful. In most cases this happens when patients are willing to be treated in this hospital, which is considerably cheaper compared to others in the region. Follow up surgeries are done at the expense of hospital Z and reduce its income drastically.

Which of the following is the best solution to reduce the number of the follow up surgeries?

a. Hospital Z has to ensure that all its patients know the risks of being treated in the cheaper hospital Z, compared to more expensive options.

b. Hospital Z needs to hire more professional staff without increasing its prices.

c. Hospital Z needs to decrease the number of patients it serves.

d. Hospital Z needs to increase its prices in order to decrease the number 
of patients.

e. Hospital Z needs to charge patients for followup surgeries, even if the patients would cover 30% of the cost of these surgeries.

sgrover · Answer

(E)

A --irrelevant.
B -- tempting, but doesnt say anything abt the professional staff in the stem. They may already have it (even though they are cheaper than other hospitals)
C --although, it may decrease follow up surgeries, not sure if they want reduced # of patients.. tough choice.
D --increase in prices doesnt imply decrease in followup surgeries
E -- if htey charge for followup surgeries, then ppl would most likely not come for it..

ps_dahiya · Answer

I will go with C.

I think E is not correct. But thats just my opinion.
Argument says that follow up surgery is done when the first surgery is not successful. So it will not be best solution if hospital has already charged for the first surgery.

Best solution would be to hire better (not more) professionals but its not in the answer choices. So IMO, best solution would be to reduce the number of patients.

deowl · Answer

D

The stem implies that the highest percentage of followup surgeries is done to patients who willing to be treated in this hospital because of its low prices. So higher prices will leed to fewer such patients and as a result to fewer followup surgeries .

biggamejames · Answer

I'm with C.

Surguries are done at the expense of hospital z, so increasing prices won't lower the number of patients.

jaynayak · Answer

Will go with C.

E asks the hospital to charge for follow up surgeries......but doesnot address the issue of follow up surgeries.
Less patients mean less surgeries........

selene · Answer

^ B ^

If the success at 1st surgery is increased, there won't be any need for follow up surgeries. And this can be sustained with a better staff as B states.

u2lover · Answer

I am going with C

a. risks are not talked about... OUT

b. this will add up to the costs of surgeries and will decrease the revenue even further... it doesn't say that such hiring will increase efficiency... OUT

c. Winner to me... says nothing about prices and says that hospital need to serve less patients in general, without any factors...

d. even though it is mentioned that this hospital is cheaper, it doesn't say anything about its patients (they may prefer doctors there and don't care about the prices...) so increasing prices isn't an option to decrease the number of patients... OUT

e. same as D... has to do with prices... OUT

TestWriter · Answer

The correct answer is D.
a. Lower prices might be a very strong incentive to decide to be treated in hospital Z, especially as follow up surgeries are covered by the hospital. We do not know from this statement what the percentage of those who already know of the risks is.
b. Hiring more profession staff would be more expensive and would lead to more decreases in profits, as the prices would not go up. Not a feasible solution.
c. Decreasing the number of patients would decrease profits, the same logic as in B.
d. Increasing its prices, Hospital Z would eliminate some of its patients who use this hospital only for the reasons for price. If the prices increase proportionally with the decrease in the number of patients, there would be a higher staff/patient ratio, which could enable better quality service and fewer follow up surgeries.
e. This statement does not provide enough information. We do not know whether the number of patients would decrease and how it will influence the profits.

ps_dahiya · Answer

Agreed. But there is one thing though. In selecting D, aren't you assuming that higher staff/patient ratio will provide better quality even though its not mentioned/assumed anywhere in the argument.

GMATT73 · Answer

Such a general assumption would probably be safe in this case.

zoom612 · Answer

Aren't we making an assumption that the increased revenue will be used for betterment of services , by choosing choice D??

On similar lines we can argue that hiring professional staff will be less expensive than incurring loss due to repeated surgery , in choice B.
Again this is an assumption as in choice D.

todinesh · Answer

E, it should be.

Unless the costs are moved to the patient, the number of surgeries won't go down.

ywilfred · Answer

Here's the key line:
"In most cases this happens when patients are willing to be treated in this hospital, which is considerably cheaper compared to others in the region."

D counters the issue most effectively. Raise prices, patients will not come in flocks, quality of surgery might improve after that.

I feel D is good.

shoonya · Answer

either B or D for me. Both require some assumptions. Guys, should we expect such questions in the real test? what is the source of this question? what is the OA

paddyboy · Answer

D makes sense - but after going thru the explanations

I selected E...

Hospital Z has a high percentage of follow up surgeries.

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