To earn the National Health Council's Tier-1 Patient Safety Endorsement, a regional hospital is required to achieve a 100 percent compliance rate on all standardized hygiene audits throughout the calendar year. St. Jude Regional Hospital completed all hygiene audits this past year with zero recorded violations. Therefore, St. Jude Regional Hospital will certainly be awarded the Tier-1 Patient Safety Endorsement next month. Which of the following best describes the flaw in the argument's reasoning?
- It treats a condition that is necessary for obtaining the endorsement as though it were sufficient to guarantee receiving it.Answer
- BIt assumes without justification that St. Jude Regional Hospital's past hygiene performance is unrepresentative of its overall operational safety.
- CIt fails to consider that failing a hygiene audit would prevent a hospital from qualifying for the safety endorsement.
- DIt relies on evidence gathered from an extraordinarily narrow group of medical facilities to draw a broader conclusion.
- EIt mistakes the cause of improved hygiene compliance for an effect of receiving the safety endorsement.
Answer
The argument commits the flaw of treating a necessary condition for receiving the endorsement as if it were a sufficient condition to guarantee receiving it.
The argument establishes that a 100 percent compliance rate on hygiene audits is a required (necessary) condition for earning the endorsement. However, the author concludes that fulfilling this single requirement guarantees (is sufficient for) receiving the endorsement, ignoring the possibility that other conditions must also be met. The correct answer accurately identifies this flaw.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Confusing Necessary and Sufficient Conditions