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.
Which statement could be inferred by the reader from the last paragraph of the passage?
-
A
Procedures that Lifewings Partners recommends are always effective.
-
B
Medical mistakes can happen at even the best hospitals.
-
C
City hospitals know more than others about cutting-edge medicine.
-
D
Medical mistakes will one day be completely eradicated.
A valid inference is that medical mistakes can happen at even the best hospitals, supported by Harden's warning that cutting-edge reputation doesn't guarantee safety for routine procedures.
A) Procedures that Lifewings Partners recommends are always effective.
Contradicted by cautious language, "mistakes are too big... to risk" implies procedures reduce but don't eliminate risk. "Always effective" overstates certainty absent from the text.
B) Medical mistakes can happen at even the best hospitals.
Directly supported by Harden's statement: "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", explicitly warning that excellence in one area doesn't prevent errors in another.
C) City hospitals know more than others about cutting-edge medicine.
Never mentioned, the passage discusses hospital reputation generally without geographic distinctions between urban and rural facilities.
D) Medical mistakes will one day be completely eradicated.
Contradicted by realistic tone acknowledging persistent risk ("mistakes are too big... to risk") without suggesting total elimination is achievable.
Conclusion
Valid inferences must extend logically from textual evidence without overstatement. Harden's explicit warning about reputation-safety disconnect provides clear support for inferring that even highly regarded hospitals remain vulnerable to preventable errors.