The NHS is one of the most cost-effective health systems in the developed world, according to a study (pdf) published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The "surprising" findings show the NHS saving more lives for each pound spent as a proportion of national wealth than any other country apart from Ireland over 25 years. Among the 17 countries considered, the United States healthcare system was among the least efficient and effective.

For years nurses — and their union representatives — have argued that inadequate staffing hurts patients. A new study in the American Journal of Infection Control examines the problem and suggests that burnout drives some common lapses in patient care.

As the Global AIDS Conference brings people from all over the world to Washington, DC, National Nurses United and other groups call for a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions to fund healthcare, housing, and a cure for AIDS.

Heavy patient loads and chronic burnout have long been among the top complaints of nurses at the nation’s hospital bedsides. But a new study shows that those problems affect not only the nurses themselves, but also the number of infections in the people they care for.

For years, as hospitals cut costs to survive ever-increasing financial pressures, nurses argued that inadequate staffing harms patients. California's controversial and, so far, unique response was to mandate minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, which, if applied locally, would prevent 222 surgical deaths annually in New Jersey and 264 in Pennsylvania, researchers here calculated in 2010. Now members of that same University of Pennsylvania team say they have figured out a key reason for that. Though it might seem clear-cut - fewer caregivers provide poorer care - they maintain the issue is not simply numbers but a bad work environment. And that leads to burnout.

Olympic athletes may perform superhuman feats on the field. But when they buy health insurance, they face a system just as weird and complicated as the rest of us do.