[ARGU 203] by Cherish

kidloveUID: 2814224

不知道为什么我每次传上来的文章里面有很多单词都是连在一起的...- -所以大家看的时候受累啦...我也不知道怎么回事...
TOPIC:ARGUMENT203 - The following appeared in a newspaper feature story.

"At the small, nonprofit hospitalin the town of Saluda, the average length of a patient's stay is two days; atthe large, for-profit hospital in the nearby city of Megaville, the averagepatient stay is six days. Also, the cure rate among patients in the Saludahospital is about twice that of the Megaville hospital. The Saluda hospital hasmore employees per patient than the hospital in Megaville, and there are fewcomplaints about service at the local hospital. Such data indicate thattreatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of betterquality than treatment in larger, for-profit hospitals."
WORDS: 591
TIME: 00:50:00
DATE: 2011/2/9 9:42:33

In the statement, the arguer concludesthat treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of betterquality than treatment in larger, for-profit hospital. To support thisconclusion, the arguer points out that at the small, nonprofit hospital in thetown Saluda has more employees per patient and less complaints about servicethan the larger, for-profit one in nearby city of Megaville. In addition, thearguer reasons that the average patient stay in the smaller one is much shorterthan in the larger one. This argument may seem alright at first sight, itsuffers from several critical fallacies.

Firstly, the arguer hastilygeneralizes that all treatments in smaller, nonprofit hospitals are moreeconomical and of better quality than treatments in larger, for-profit hospitals.There's no evidence showing that every smaller, nonprofit hospital are of goodservice and well equipped. Actually most smaller, nonprofit hospitals areequipped with only few equipments that could only deal with smaller scale ofinjuries, such as bruise, cut, light fevers, and only some well-qualifieddoctors are available, maybe some of them are volunteers. Besides, most smallerhospitals are located in counties, towns and other smaller scale ofcommunities, which means less medical incidents will happen and the medicalfaculties thus are not fully prepared for the happens-all the time medicalcases. In addition, the arguer does not provide information of the charge inthe two kinds of hospitals. In our common sense, the nonprofit hospital chargesmuch less than bigger one, but we should take into account that the smaller onemay not qualified for many treatment and examinations, in consequence thepatient may need further treatment in larger one.

Secondly, the arguer claims that inthe Saluda hospital, the average length of a patient's stay is two days, whileat the larger, for-profit hospital in the city of Megaville costs six days. Butthe arguer fails to provide information about the actual condition and injuryseverity of these two different groups of patients in two hospitals. Likementioned above, the Saluda hospital locates in the town where might occursfewer accidents than the nearby city of Megaville, where might has more trafficor other complicated situations that might increase the incidents of injuriesor illnesses. Similarly, the cure rate among patients in different hospitalsmay differ according to the severity of injuries or illnesses.

Thirdly, the comparison of employeesin two different types of hospitals is not comparable. In the smaller,nonprofit hospital in Saluda, the employees might be some volunteering doctorsand nurses who are not available all the time and may not be sufficientlyqualified with severe injuries and illness, it is too hasty to draw such aconclusion that solely by knowing there are more employees per patient, theSaluda hospital may suffers from an organizational inefficiency or many of lackprofessional ability. Besides, more employees and few complaints do notnecessarily indicate that treatment in Saluda hospital is better than that inthe Megaville hospital, for that there's few complaint does not equal to nocomplaint. It is possible that people come to smaller hospital for basictreatment and does not expect too much.

To sum up, the conclusion reached inthis argument is invalid and misleading. To strengthen the argument, the arguerwould have to provide further evidence that the situation of patients andactual charge in two different hospitals are sufficient enough in order toreach the generalization of all treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospital ismore economical and of better quality than that in larger, for-profit hospital.