Extract:
Lifewings
What do pilots, astronauts, physicians, and risk managers have in common? In this case, they are all part of an organization based in Memphis, Tennessee, called Lifewings Partners. This unusual group focuses on finding ways to eliminate mistakes and accidents in medical settings within the United States. Lifewings Partners emphasizes the need for a watchdog in various medical settings.
According to the Institute of Health, approximately 98,000 patients die each year in U.S. health care settings due to nothing more than medical error. Examples of medical errors include the man who had the wrong testicle removed in a Los Angeles hospital, a young boy who went in for a typical hernia surgery and ended up with brain damage from the anesthesia, and a hospital in Rhode Island that performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain, three times on three different patients in less than a year.
In addition to making internal changes in medical settings by changing procedures and establishing checklists, Lifewings Partners also works to educate patients on safety before they even enter the hospital. The company suggests that all consumers do the following: go online to obtain public information on a hospital’s safety, talk to their doctors to see what safety standards are in place already, and ask professionals about which facilities tend to have the best safety records. Founder Steve Harden says, “Just because a hospital has a great reputation for cutting-edge medicine doesn’t necessarily mean the hospital is the safest place to go for routine procedures.” After all, some mistakes are too big and too irrevocable to risk.
The word watchdog as used in the second paragraph of the passage can best be defined as ____________.
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A
companion
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B
guard
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C
manager
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D
punisher
In the medical safety context, watchdog means guard, a vigilant monitor protecting against errors through oversight and prevention.
A) Companion
Companion implies friendship or accompaniment, unrelated to protective oversight. Watchdogs function through vigilance, not companionship.
B) Guard
Guard precisely captures watchdog's meaning: protective oversight preventing harm. Lifewings Partners functions as institutional guard through procedure changes, checklists, and patient education, all designed to prevent medical errors before they occur.
C) Manager
Manager implies administrative control, broader than watchdog's specific protective function. While Lifewings may influence management, its watchdog role emphasizes error prevention rather than general administration.
D) Punisher
Punisher implies retrospective discipline, opposite to watchdog's prospective prevention focus. The passage emphasizes error elimination through system changes, not punishing individuals after mistakes occur.
Conclusion
Contextual analysis reveals watchdog operates as protective oversight mechanism. Only "guard" captures this connotation of vigilant prevention, monitoring systems to intercept errors before they harm patients rather than managing operations or punishing mistakes.