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FRIDAY, Feb. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Rave online reviews about a hospital stay may not mean much about the actual medical care there, if a new study is any indication. Researchers found that across U.S. hospitals, patient-satisfaction scores were more dependent on "hospitality" factors -- like friendly nurses, quiet rooms and good food -- than on hard measures of health care quality. At hospitals with the lowest death rates, patient satisfaction tended to be higher, but only by a small amount, the study found. Instead, quiet, comfort and friendly staff were much stronger influences. It's not exactly surprising: Patients know whether their food is palatable, their room is comfortable or hospital staffers are responsive, noted Cristobal Young, the lead researcher. "Those...

FRIDAY, Feb. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The coronavirus is on the cusp of becoming a global pandemic and experts say that, if it does, older people and men could be most at risk for serious illness and death. Men have died from coronavirus at nearly twice the rate as women, and the virus has been shown to sicken and kill older folks at a greater rate than young people, according to data from China. The coronavirus death rate among men in China stands at 2.8%, compared with 1.7% among women, according to a report last week from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. About 80% of people who have died from the virus in China were over 60 years of age, China's National Health Commission has reported. Studies in The Lancet found an average age of 55 among Chinese...

FRIDAY, Feb. 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Just how prepared the United States is to quell an outbreak of coronavirus on American soil came into question on Thursday, as federal officials changed guidelines for testing after a whistleblower complaint. The complaint claimed some federal health workers had been allowed to interact with quarantined Americans without proper training or protective gear. Another issue emerged after the first U.S. case of coronavirus of an unknown origin surfaced in northern California on Wednesday. State officials there scrambled to track down anyone who might have come into contact with the woman, who arrived at UC Davis Medical Center from another hospital on ventilator support. State and federal officials disagree on how long it took to get approval...

THURSDAY, Feb. 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new monitoring approach could help improve treatment of patients with tuberculosis (TB), researchers say. TB is an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs. Treatment involves multiple pills or injection drugs daily for at least six months. Successful treatment depends on the medications reaching pockets of TB bacteria in the lungs. Researchers have developed a system using CT and PET scans to see whether a key medicine called rifampin is reaching those lung areas of TB bacteria. "Up until now, the only way we've known that rifampin sometimes does not reach the bacteria inside cavities has been by examining portions of lungs surgically resected [removed] from patients for whom standard anti-TB therapy failed," said study lead...