equvivelent of checkCudaErrors for bool host functions

What is the recommended way of checking for errors in host cuda calls.
Eg if I try checkCudaErrors(sdkStartTimer(&timer)) the nvcc compiler tells me the return type of
sdkStartTimer bool is not compatible with checkCudaErrors().

More generally is checkCudaErrors() the recommended approach for CUDA 5 ?
Where is it documented?

Many thanks
Bill