Responding to a radiological crisis: experiences of British foreign office staff in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

Objectives: To identify factors that affected well-being among British embassy staff based in Japan after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown.

Methods: In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 36 members of staff 8 to 9 months after the earthquake.

Results: Participants described their crisis work as stressful, exciting, and something of which they were proud.

The impact of an acute care surgery clinical care pathway for suspected appendicitis on the use of CT in the emergency department.

Background: The natural evolution of an acute care surgery (ACS) service is to develop disease-specific care pathways aimed at quality improvement. Our primary goal was to evaluate the implementation of an ACS pathway dedicated to suspected appendicitis on patient flow and the use of computed tomography (CT) in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: All adults within a large health care system (3 hospitals) with suspected appendicitis were analyzed during our study period, which included 3 time periods: pre- and postimplementation of the disease-specific pathway and at 12-month follow-up.

Acute care surgery: the impact of an acute care surgery service on assessment, flow, and disposition in the emergency department.

Background: Acute care surgery (ACS) services are becoming increasingly popular.

Methods: Assessment, flow, and disposition of adult ACS patients (acute, nontrauma surgical conditions) through the emergency department (ED) in a large health care system (Calgary) were prospectively analyzed.

Results: Among 447 ACS ED consultations over 3 centers (70% admitted to ACS), the median wait time from the consultation request to ACS arrival was 36 minutes, and from ACS arrival to the admission request it was 91 minutes.