Learning from medical errors

Dr. Charles Bosk, author of Forgive and Remember Reflections on Physicians and Mistakes, spoke this afternoon at the Medical College of Wisconsin 3rd annual Medical Humanities lecture. One of Dr. Bosk's points in the lecture was that an environment that pressures medical staff to make absolutely zero mistakes ultimately harms the staff because it fosters an environment where staff will lie and cover up mistakes and staff will not be able to learn from those mistakes and develop better medical judgment.

So how do we encourage medical excellence and preventing the preventable medical errors, while still fostering a learning environment where medical staff grow and learn from their mistakes?