Gallup’s annual poll ranking the most trusted profession has consistently shown nurses to be at the top of the list. One of the reasons could be nurses report errors. Up to 40% of the errors occurring in hospitals are reported by nurses. Seems, however, there is a lot of room for improvement. The same report estimated 86% of hospital errors continue to go unreported.

Source: Medscape

The February issue of Pediatrics has a study showing high volume hospitals manage complications in pediatric heart surgery patients better than lower volume facilities. Both types of hospitals had similar rates of postop complications. However, the mortality associated with those complications was higher in hospitals that performed fewer than 150 cases per year.

The Archives of Internal Medicine has published a Dutch study showing supplemental oxygen can be harmful to emergency department patients.

We thought we had this down, right? We take low dose aspirin every day to help fight our risk of cancer and heart disease. Wrong. At least according to a recent analysis of nine trials involving more than 100,000 people. Aspirin can lower our risk of first heart attack or stroke by 10%. Of course, discussing your medication regimen with your health care provider is essential prior to making any changes.