Sepsis is the presence of harmful bacteria in a patient€™s tissue. The numbers of Medicare sepsis patients discharged between October 1, 2012, and September 30, 2013, are shown in Table 72 for various lengths of stays.

Let d be the number of Medicare sepsis patients discharged after staying for n days.
a. Construct a scatterplot.
b. Is the association positive, negative, or neither?
c. Which of the points in your scatterplot is lowest? What does that mean in this situation?
d. Which of the points in your scatterplot is highest? What does that mean in this situation?
e. Under Medicare rules for most sepsis patients, hos- pitals get paid small amounts for patients who have short stays and a larger amount for patients who stay 20 days. But hospitals do not get additional monies if patients stay more than 20 days. Explain why the data suggest hospitals are keeping some patients longer than necessary.

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Table 72 Numbers of Medicare Sepsis Patients Discharged Length of Stay Number of Sepsis Patients Discharged (days) 37 43 67 10 15 19 20 25 30 35 40 90 931 279 113 73