Posted: July 28th, 2016

Imagine you have a serious non-urgent knee problem. Your GP recommends you undergo a knee replacement surgery.

Imagine you have a serious non-urgent knee problem. Your GP recommends you undergo a knee replacement surgery. In this surgery, the doctor removes damaged cartilage and bone from the surface of your knee joint and replaces them with a man-made surface of metal and plastic. In order to have this operation you will have to go to a hospital. The table below shows the 5 hospitals you can choose from. a) Imagine that Location were the most important criterion to you. What hospital would you choose if you used a lexicographic strategy? Spell out your choice process if you used the lexicographic strategy and Hospital X were 2 miles away. b) Would you recommend or discourage using a choice strategy of this kind, and why? c) Based on the behavioural research you know, list all the factors that you think render the choice of one hospital from these five difficult. For each of these factors, describe how an unaided decision maker would choose. In your answer make reference to the table and give specific examples. d) Imagine that the table below were designed with a “default” selection, i.e. would always present one of the 5 hospitals as pre-selected. Of course, people can change the selection if they want. 1. Do you think that including a ‘default’ would help people make their choice? If so, how? If not, why? 2. Imagine advising the NHS on how to set this default. What hospital of the 5 would you suggest as the best ‘default’, and why?