Question: To help consumers make informed decisions about health care, the government releases data about patient outcomes in hospitals. You want to compare Hospital A and Hospital B, which serve your community. Here are data on all patients undergoing surgery in a recent time period. The data include the condition of the patient (“good” or “poor”) before the surgery. “Survived” means that the patient lived at least 6 weeks following surgery.

a. Compare percents to show that Hospital A has a higher survival rate for both groups of patients.

a. Combine the data into a single two-way table of outcome (“survived” or “died”) by hospital (A or B). The local paper reports just these overall survival rates. Which hospital has the higher rate.

b. Explain from the data, in language that a reporter can understand, how Hospital B can do better overall even though Hospital A does better for both group of patients.