Comitesargovia

As an office manager here in sunny LA, I am often asked to organize some of the parties for our small companies. In the past, dinner and drinks was an easy standby, but the weak economy has put a damper on that sort of fun and budget constraints prohibit that kind of spending on an event. An event planner friend of mine suggested that for a really fun Los Angeles corporate event, we could try indoor karting at a facility in nearby Thousand Oaks: fun, slightly competitive, slightly team-oriented, silly, and relatively inexpensive. It was a perfect recommendation.

When it comes to planning a corporate event Los Angeles doesn’t offer that many convenient and inexpensive options, unless senior management’s idea of a good time is a picnic in some public park. Kart racing was both fun and budget-oriented. Planning the quarterly office party there made me a hero/superstar to a lot of management, as they all had a great time trying to one-up each other on the raceway in the same way they try to one-up each other at the office every single day.

The place helped plan the party, including arranging for food delivery and providing a comfortable private room for us to relax in and laugh about the morning races before hitting the track again in the afternoon. They customized a package for a party, the cost of which was less than half what it would have cost us to throw the usual dinner-bar party that ushered in new fiscal quarters in better economic times. Management seemed to have so much fun that I think karting could become a semi-annual tradition – if the company doesn’t form a competitive team to race against other companies. When you can make it so people have more fun for less, you really look like a hero, which is exactly how I looked thanks to all the staff from the indoor go-kart track who were very kind and helpful.

Los Angeles corporate event planning used to be much easier when the company budget allowed for what seem now like outrageous expenses on office parties. While I will need another good idea for the next quarterly party – racing every quarter might be too much of a good thing – I am glad to have found this venue, which makes my job a whole lot easier. I now know that when it comes to planning an affordable corporate event, Los Angeles isn’t completely devoid of options.

Alarmingly, medication errors account for 78 percent of all serious medical errors in an intensive care unit. In the heat of an emergency, decisions have to be made fast, but if the wrong medications are prescribed, your health or the health of a loved one is at risk. The wrong medication can wreck greater havoc than the original illness may have presented.

 Medication errors are often what prompt people to call a medical malpractice lawyer. Chicago is no stranger to medical malpractice.

There are strategies you can do to prevent medication errors from occurring. Extended physician care work schedules should be eliminated. We ask too much of our doctors, and the stress can play itself out in damaging errors that can result in death. Would you want to ride a Greyhound when the bus driver hasn’t slept in a week?

 Medication orders should be monitored to avoid human error. The current movement to computerize all hospital records should prove useful in this regard. The more streamlined our hospitals are, the fewer errors in medication we will suffer. When everything is on the same page, it’s easier to find the answers.

Pharmacists should have an active participating role in the ICU. Since the first place a patient will be prescribed a medication is often in the ICU, having a pharmacist on hand is every bit as important as having a doctor in the hospital. Pharmacists need to have more active roles in hospital settings, especially on the ICU ward.

 Patients should receive complete consultation regarding any medications they are taking upon admission or discharge to the ICU, and up-to-date medication lists should be maintained.

Studies show that it takes as many as 80 to 100 correctly executed steps to administer a single dose of medication to a critically ill patient in an ICU ward. This allows great room for error if the hospital doesn’t establish a complete and extensive system of checks and balances.

A matter of great debate in the car and driver world is one that has no real promise of beings resolved: whether it is better to drive manual or stick shift or whether an automatic transmission is better. As I see it, it’s a simple case of having to weigh the pros and the cons.

Automatic transmissions clearly have the advantage of being convenient. You simply turn on the car, put it into gear, and you’re off – you never once have to worry about shifting a stick, stepping on a clutch pedal, stalling, or any of that. That’s a huge convenience, especially given how hectic the roads can get these days. But with an automatic transmission you lose a few features.

First, you lose the ability to downshift as you can in stick shift, which can give you the speed you need to pass someone or else slow you down quickly without having to apply the brake. Second, because you can’t downshift and because the high gears of automatic transmissions tend be a little tighter than the high gears of manual transmissions, gas is burned faster in two ways. Because slowing down in a car with an automatic transmission requires the brakes, re-accelerating without momentum will burn more gas; and because the high gears tend to be tighter in an automatic, the engine will work harder at higher speeds to maintain speed.

Manual definitely has the disadvantage of being annoying to drive. The co-ordination of a clutch pedal and a stick to shift is more than a hassle and is actually probably a little bit less safe since the shift requires a hand that could otherwise be used controlling the wheel.

But what manual lacks in convenience it makes up for in control. Being able to downshift enables the driver to accelerate and slow more quickly than an automatic transmission will allow, and more predictably since the driver is controlling the action; being able to shift into looser high gears also makes it easier to conserve gas on the highway without overworking the engine.

But why choose if you don’t have to? Semiautomatic transmissions offer the best of both worlds; automatic shifting with the ability to downshift and shift up as necessary.