It is safe to say that the 11% increase in the num

单项选择题

If anyone knew how to get the best medical treatment, it was Betsy Lehman. A health columnist who had worked at the Boston Globe since 1982, she had covered everything from leading-edge research to the finer points of a physician’s bedside manner. When she learned she had an advanced case of breast cancer, she carefully studied her options and chose to undergo an experimental treatment offered at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a prestigious hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Tragically, the 39- year-old mother of two died in December. Her death was not the result of her disease but of a huge overdose of a powerful anticancer drug accidentally administered by the hospital’s staff.
Lehman’s case is just one of a spate of medical foul-ups that have made headlines in the U.S. in recent weeks. Though no statistical evidence shows that malpractice is on the rise, state licensing boards have stepped up their investigations of doctors. The number of physicians who have had their licenses revoked, suspended or restricted rose from 1,974 in 1992 to 2,190 in 1993, an 11% increase.
Unfortunately, as long as doctors are human, treatment blunders can never be eliminated entirely. "With 4 million patients a day visiting physicians, it’s inevitable, if inexcusable, that mistakes will be made," says Dr. James Todd of the American Medical Association. Three large studies over the past 30 years have documented a distressingly consistent rate of medical mishaps in the U.S.. By one measure, such negligence in American hospitals may result in 80,000 deaths each year.
That toll is a sign to some critics that improvement is needed in the systems that American hospitals use to catch errors and review doctor’s performance. Perhaps the only benefit of highly publicized cases like Betsy Lehman’s is that they will spur hospitals to strengthen the safeguards needed to keep such tragedies as uncommon as possible.

It is safe to say that the 11% increase in the number of revoked, suspended and restricted licenses shows

A．A tightened control of doctors on the part of the state licensing boards.
B．A reinforced system of safety on the part of American hospitals.
C．An increase in the number of licensed physicians within a period of one year.
D．An increase of hospital deaths caused by inexcusable medical blunders.