Question

Hoff (2003) examined the work lives of physicians employed by health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Suppose that the following data depict the daily patient load (i.e., the number of patients seen per day) of seven HMO physicians: 8, 7, 11, 4, 5, 13, 7.

a) Organize a table with cases in rank order where x is the number of patients seen per day.
b) Compute the mean, median and modal patient loads for the seven physicians.
c) Compute the range of patients seen per day.
d) Compute the standard deviation.

Answer 1

To organize the table with cases in rank order, the patient loads are arranged in ascending order. The mean, median, and mode of the patient loads are calculated. The range and standard deviation of the patient loads are determined.

Step-by-step explanation:

a) To organize the table with cases in rank order, we arrange the number of patients seen per day in ascending order. The sorted list is: 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 11, 13.

b) To compute the mean patient load, we sum up all the patient loads and divide by the number of physicians. Mean = (4 + 5 + 7 + 7 + 8 + 11 + 13) / 7 = 7.43.

To compute the median patient load, we find the middle value in the sorted list. Median = 7.

To compute the mode, we identify the value that appears most frequently. In this case, 7 is the mode as it appears twice.

c) The range of patients seen per day can be found by subtracting the smallest value (4) from the largest value (13). Range = 13 - 4 = 9.

d) The standard deviation can be calculated using the formula: standard deviation = sqrt(sum((x - mean)^2) / n), where x is the patient load, mean is the mean patient load, and n is the number of physicians. By applying this formula to the given data, we find that the standard deviation is approximately 3.46.