Of all of the surgeons practicing at the city hospital, the chief surg

Question

Of all of the surgeons practicing at the city hospital, the chief surgeon has the worst record in terms of the percentage of his patients who die either during or immediately following an operation performed by him. Paradoxically, the hospital's administrators claim that he is the best surgeon currently working at the hospital.

Which one of the following, if true, goes farthest toward showing that the administrators' claim and the statistic cited might both be correct?

(A) Since the hospital administrators appoint the chief surgeon, the administrators are strongly motivated to depict the chief surgeon they have chosen as a wise choice.

(B) In appointing the current chief surgeon, the hospital administrators followed the practice, well established at the city hospital, of promoting one of the surgeons already on staff.

(C) Some of the younger surgeons on the city hospital's staff received part of their training from the current chief surgeon.

(D) At the city hospital those operations that inherently entail the greatest risk to the life of the patient are generally performed by the chief surgeon.

(E) The current chief surgeon has a better record of patients'surviving surgery than did his immediate predecessor.

Siva2021 · Accepted Answer

IMO Option D.The chief surgeon performs those operations which entail the highest risk.This explains his low success rate while performing operations.The hospital staff regard him as the best surgeon because he performs the most complex operations. This resolves the paradox.Please give me kudos. I need them badly to increase my score.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(A) No. This is perhaps the second-best answer. The implication of the stated conflict of interest is that the administrators might exaggerate the abilities of the chief surgeon. However, this is speculation. If there were no conflict of interest, it would still be possible that the staff would consider him the best surgeon.

(B) No. How he was appointed does not resolve the discrepancy between the chief surgeon’s reputation and his apparently poor record.

(C) No. This does not resolve the discrepancy between chief surgeon’s reputation and his apparently poor record, though it does imply that younger surgeons who trained under him might be loyal to him. However, this would have relevance only if these surgeons, not the hospital administrators, claimed the chief surgeon was the hospital’s best surgeon.

(D) Yes. This explains the apparent paradox well. If the chief surgeon is assigned the high-risk cases, it’s to be expected that he would have a higher number of patients who die. For example, suppose 90 percent of surgery patients at the hospital survive their operations, but only 75 percent of the chief surgeon’s patients survive. Clearly, the chief surgeon’s survival rate is much lower than the hospital’s average. But if the chief surgeon performs only open heart surgery and the national survival rate for these operations is just 50 percent, the chief surgeon’s survival rate is impressive.

Answer: D

(E) No. The statements in the passage compare the chief surgeon’s current performance to that of the current staff, not to that of the previous staff or previous chief surgeon.

Sanjeetgujrall · Answer

IMO D since the chief surgeon does the most risky operations so naturally more deaths are possible

PrinceVegeta · Answer

Of all of the surgeons practicing at the city hospital, the chief surgeon has the worst record in terms of the percentage of his patients who die either during or immediately following an operation performed by him. Paradoxically, the hospital's administrators claim that he is the best surgeon currently working at the hospital.

Which one of the following, if true, goes farthest toward showing that the administrators' claim and the statistic cited might both be correct?

We should be able to prove that both the claims are correct.

(A) Since the hospital administrators appoint the chief surgeon, the administrators are strongly motivated to depict the chief surgeon they have chosen as a wise choice.

this option is portraying the doctor as good even if he's not, making one of the claims(hospital administration's) not true

(B) In appointing the current chief surgeon, the hospital administrators followed the practice, well established at the city hospital, of promoting one of the surgeons already on staff.

we don't care about surgeon's promotion. this is out of context, yet confuses us with the wording

(C) Some of the younger surgeons on the city hospital's staff received part of their training from the current chief surgeon.

so is that the reason why he's the best? who knows all those people whom he trained were worse doctors! we cannot really say that..

(D) At the city hospital those operations that inherently entail the greatest risk to the life of the patient are generally performed by the chief surgeon.

All the risky operations are performed by the chief, so even if it is done by a normal doctor the result would be same or inferior to this. So he's the best. Here we satisfied two claims stats that most patients die and administration's claim.

(E) The current chief surgeon has a better record of patients'surviving surgery than did his immediate predecessor.

Illogical comparison and no way useful to our argument.

ANSWER_D

YASH750 · Answer

Correct answer is D.

E seems like a tempting option but is wrong.
Because The claim is that the chief surgeon is the best doc in the hospital currently. Option E compares him with his predecessor .Such a comparison is invalid because regardless of the predecessor working in the hospital , the claim is that the current Cheif surgeon is the best. Only D addresses this paradox.

A_Nishith · Answer

(D) Yes. This explains the apparent paradox well. If the chief surgeon is assigned the high-risk cases, it’s to be expected that he would have a higher number of patients who die. For example, suppose 90 percent of surgery patients at the hospital survive their operations, but only 75 percent of the chief surgeon’s patients survive. Clearly, the chief surgeon’s survival rate is much lower than the hospital’s average. But if the chief surgeon performs only open heart surgery and the national survival rate for these operations is just 50 percent, the chief surgeon’s survival rate is impressive.

Answer: D

Answer: D

Of all of the surgeons practicing at the city hospital, the chief surg

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Of all of the surgeons practicing at the city hospital, the chief surg

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