Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates

Question

Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates and require shorter hospital stays if they are housed in private rooms rather than semiprivate rooms. Yet in Woodville 's hospital, which has only semiprivate rooms, infection rates and length of stays are typically the same as in several nearby hospitals where most of the rooms are private, even though patients served by these hospitals are very similar to those served by Woodville's hospital.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent conflict in the information above?

(A) Many of the doctors who routinely treat patients in Woodville's hospital also routinely treat patients in one or more of the nearby hospitals.
 
(B) Most of the nearby hospitals were built within the last 10 years, whereas Woodville's hospital was built about 50 years ago.

(C) Infection is more likely to be spread where people come into close contact with one another than where they do not.

(D) Woodville's hospital has a policy of housing one patient per room in semiprivate rooms whenever possible.

(E) Woodville's hospital is located in its central business district, whereas most of the nearby hospitals are located outside their municipalities' business districts.

SwethaReddyL · Answer

@KarishmaB @gmatninja can you please explain this? Also how relevent is lsat questions for gmat prep

Missinga · Answer

Hospital have lower infection rates where the rooms are private. 
Woodvilles hospital has only semi private rooms.
Also, infection rates and length of stays are typically the same as in several nearby hospitals where most of the rooms are private, even though patients served by these hospitals are very similar to those served by Woodville's hospital.
Prethinking- Although Woodvilles have only semiprivate rooms but what if they only allow 1 patient to stay in the semiprivate room. This would resolve the above paradox.

Option D somewhat matches our prethinking.

Answer: D

GMATNinja · Answer

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Ayushi0002 · Answer

GMATNinja

But if it just 'whenever possible' then how can we say that it leads to the same result as the hospital where it is done every time there is a patient in a private ward.

In understand there is no other option good enough, but I thought since E tells the location difference - that might help resolve the paradox. I understand it doesn't now that I think about it, but I am not fully convinced with D either.

SarfrazAP · Answer

D is not a great answer, but it's the best answer among the rest of the choices.

LSAT Reasoning questions are by nature ambiguous. In fact, I'd say this question is relatively "normal." If you are at a Beginner or even Intermediate level on GMAT CR, don't bother with LSAT CR. Attempt LSAT questions only if you are absolutely acing GMAT CR, as that will help keep you grounded among other things

GMATNinja · Answer

Keep in mind that you are looking for something that  helps  to resolve the apparent conflict.

Sure, the "whenever possible" parts means that the semi-private rooms are sometimes shared by multiple patients. But if those rooms are often used as private rooms, that would certainly HELP to explain why infection rates and length of stays in Woodville's hospital are typically the same as in   several   nearby hospitals where   most   of the rooms are private.

The words in bold provide a little latitude. We aren't comparing the Woodville hospital to hospitals that ONLY have private rooms. Instead, we're comparing the Woodville hospital to hospitals where MOST of the rooms are private. If Woodville's semi-private rooms are often used as private rooms, then it makes sense that Woodville's statistics would be similar to those at   several   (but not necessarily ALL) nearby hospitals.

(E) doesn't help because it points to a difference between the Woodville hospital and the other hospitals, not something that would explain why the stats are similar.

I hope that helps!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates

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Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates

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