Purpose of review: This review summarizes the knowledge of error and of critical incident reporting systems in general and especially in emergency medicine.
Recent findings: Medicine is a high-risk area and emergency medicine in particular needs consequent use of critical incident reporting systems. We need a safety culture to learn from our mistakes and we need to discuss all mistakes regardless of hierarchical structures in medicine.
Summary: The first step in avoiding fatalities in emergency medicine is to accept that errors do occur. The next question is how to prevent errors in medicine and not to search for personal mistakes. We need a culture of error and not a culture of blame. Critical incidents occur in all ranges of medical hierarchical structures. We have to accept the presence of mistakes and we need to recognize them every day to protect our patients.