Chapter 3, Problem 49E

Hospitals Most patients who undergo surgery make routine recoveries and are discharged as planned. Others suffer excessive bleeding, infection, or other postsurgical complications and have their discharges from the hospital delayed. Suppose your city has a large hospital and a small hospital, each performing major and minor surgeries. You collect data to see how many surgical patients have their discharges delayed by postsurgical complications, and you find the results shown in the following table:

	Discharge Delayed Large Hospital	Small Hospital
Major Surgery	120 of 800	10 of 50
Minor Surgery	10 of 200	20 of 250

1. a) Overall, for what percent of patients was discharge delayed?
2. b) Were the percentages different for major and minor surgery?
3. c) Overall, what were the discharge delay rates at each hospital?
4. d) What were the delay rates at each hospital for each kind of surgery?
5. e) The small hospital advertises that it has a lower rate of postsurgical complications. Do you agree?
6. f) Explain, in your own words, why this confusion occurs.