Health Care: Office Visits What is the age distribution of patients who make office visits to a doctor or nurse?

The following table is based on information taken from the Medical Practice Characteristics section of the Statistical Abstract of the United States (116th edition).

Age group, years Under 15 15–24 25–44 45–64 65 and older Percent of office visitors 20% 10% 25% 20% 25%

Suppose you are a district manager of a health management organization (HMO) that is monitoring the office of a local doctor or nurse in general family practice.

This morning the office you are monitoring has eight office visits on the schedule. What is the probability that

(a) at least half the patients are under 15 years old?

First, explain how this can be modeled as a binomial distribution with 8 trials, where success is visitor age is under 15 years old and the probability of success is 20%.

(b) from 2 to 5 patients are 65 years old or older

(include 2 and 5)?

(c) from 2 to 5 patients are 45 years old or older

(include 2 and 5)? Hint: Success is 45 or older. Use the table to compute the probability of success on a single trial.

(d) all the patients are under 25 years of age?

(e) all the patients are 15 years old or older?

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