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TOPIC: ARGUMENT203 - The following appeared in a newspaper feature story.
"At the small, nonprofit hospital in the town of Saluda, the average length of a patient's stay is two days; at the large, for-profit hospital in the nearby city of Megaville, the average patient stay is six days. Also, the cure rate among patients in the Saluda hospital is about twice that of the Megaville hospital. The Saluda hospital has more employees per patient than the hospital in Megaville, and there are few complaints about service at the local hospital. Such data indicate that treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of better quality than treatment in larger, for-profit hospitals."
WORDS: 527 TIME: 00:30:00 + DATE: 2008-7-25 15:42:56
In this news clip, the author argues that smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of higher efficiency than larger, for-profit hospitals. To support it, the author cites several data showing a series of differences between a hospital in the town of Saluda and a hospital in the city of Megaville. However, careful scrutiny of the argument reveals several critical problems, which render it unconvincing as it stands.
First of all, by citing the disparity of the average patient's stay length and cure rates between Saluda and Megaville, the author unfairly assumes that this disparity in average patient’s stay length and cure rates indicates a different efficiency between the two hospitals. It is entirely possible that people stay shorter in the Saluda hospital due to its nonprofit nature-lacking enough money to hold patients as long as in the hospital in Megaville. It is also possible that patients who go to the Saluda hospital generally suffer from slight and normalhealth problems such as colds and thus easy to be cured, while the hospital in Megaville mainly cures patients who suffer from severe diseases and therefore shows a lower cure rates than the Saluda hospital. Any of these or other scenarios, if true, would cast a considerable doubt on the author's reasoning that the foregoing data indicate a better quality in Saluda hospital.
Secondly, the mere fact that Saluda hospital has more employees for each patient than the hospital in Megaville does not lend any sound support to the author's assumption that the former has better quality than the latter. Perhaps staffin the Saluda hospital are mainly occupied in logistics rather than medicine. Or perhaps staff in the hospital in Megaville are better qualified than staff in the Saluda hospital in curing patients. Without eliminating these or other possibilities, the author cannot convince me that the Saluda hospital has better quality than the hospital in Megaville on the basis of the number ofemployees per patients.
Thirdly, the author rests on the assumption that patients in both the two hospitals are equally able and willing to complain if they feel unsatisfied with the services they received. Although this might be the case, it is equally possible that patients in the Saluda are less motivated to complain about the hospitals services. Or perhaps they have less access to complain. Lacking information showing the capability and willingness of patients from each hospital, the fact can amount to scant evidence in support the argument.
Finally, even I wereto concede that the Saluda hospital is more economical and of better quality than the hospital in Megaville, this single sample is insufficient to draw any general conclusion about choosing hospitals. Without additional examples from diverse geographic locations, I cannot accept the author's sweeping generalization that the example of the Saluda hospital and the hospital in Megaville indicates a general principle.
To sum up, the author fails to adequately support the conclusion that larger, for-profit hospitals are less economical and of lower quality than smaller, nonprofit hospitals. To strengthen it, the author must provide evidence that the two hospitals in Saluda and Megaville are curing the same amount and types of disease while the Saluda hospital do a better job with lower price.
[ 本帖最后由 infant~ 于 2008-7-25 18:18 编辑 ] |
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