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.
Answer: D
Explanation:
A GMAT Critical Reasoning section comprises of facts in the form of a short passage. In GMAT critical reasoning, the candidates are tested on their reasoning, logical and analytical thinking abilities.
(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 statement is incorrect as the passage talks about the surgeon and hsi records. 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) 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. - This statement states how he was appointed. This does not resolve the discrepancy between the chief surgeon’s reputation and his apparently poor record. Hence, this statement is irrelevant.
(C) Some of the younger surgeons on the city hospital's staff received part of their training from the current chief surgeon. - This does not resolve the discrepancy between chief surgeon’s reputation and his apparently poor record. This statement implies that younger surgeons who trained under him might be loyal to him. This statement is not relevant to the topic discussed or the questions asked. Hence, we can consider this as incorrect or not justified.
(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. - This statement explains the apparent paradox well. Since the person in discussion is the chief surgeon, he is assigned the high-risk cases. Hence, it is very likely that he would have a higher number of patients who die since they are risky patients. Let us take an example:
Suppose 90 percent of patients at the hospital survive their operations, but only 75 percent of the chief surgeon’s patients survive. Here, the rate of chief surgeon is much lower than the hospital’s average. But if the chief surgeon performs only open heart surgery (Risky and serious) and the national survival rate for such cases is just 50 percent, we see that the chief surgeon’s survival rate is very impressive.
(E) The current chief surgeon has a better record of patients'surviving surgery than did his immediate predecessor. - This is incorrect as the statements in the passage compare the chief surgeon’s current performance to that of the current staff. Here, in the option, we see the comparison with the previous staff or previous chief surgeon. Hence, this is totally opposite and incorrect.
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