In: Statistics and Probability
One of the reasons health care costs have been rising rapidly in recent years is the increasing cost of malpractice insurance for physicians. Also, fear of being sued causes doctors to run more precautionary tests (possibly unnecessary) just to make sure they are not guilty of missing something. These precautionary tests also add to health care costs. Data in the Excel Online file provided below are consistent with findings in the Reader's Digest article and can be used to estimate the proportion of physicians over the age of 55 who have been sued at least once. Construct a spreadsheet to answer the following questions.
Sample Size 150
Hypothesized Population Proportion 0.50
Level of Significance 0.01
Have you been sued by a patient? |
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a. Formulate hypotheses that can be used to see if these data can support a finding that more than half of physicians over the age of 55 have been sued at least once.
_________<>≤≥=≠ 0.50 | |
_________<>≤≥=≠ 0.50 |
b. Use the Excel Online file provided above to compute the sample proportion of physicians over the age of 55 who have been sued at least once (to 2 decimals).
Calculate the value of the test statistic (to 2 decimals).
What is the -value (to 4 decimal places)? Do not round intermediate calculations.
c. At , what is your conclusion?
Since -value _________≤> , we _________rejectfail to reject . We conclude that we have _________sufficientinsufficient evidence to suggest that the proportion of physicians over the age of 55 who have been sued at least once is greater than .50.