Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence responds to follow-up questions to GAO's July 27, 2000, testimony before Congress on patient safety and quality of care at the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA). The Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry and VA's Office of Research and Development are not directly linked organizationally. The four centers of Inquiry do not report to and are not funded by the Office of Research and Development. The Directors of the four centers report to either the Veterans Integrated Service Networks or Medical Center manager where they are located. The work at the Centers of Inquiry address some but not all of the known principal adverse and sentinel events at VA medical facilities. The key challenges to improving patient safety include setting goals, planning, and communicating the priority of patient safety to its employees. VA's patient safety program has not been fully implemented, because it is too early to predict whether, in the final analysis, it will be a model for other health care organizations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A strong competitive workforce is necessary for success in today's era of technological advances and increased global competition. Congress wants to ensure that employment and training programs foster a coherent and efficient approach to helping individuals find jobs in an environment characterized by changing labor demands. GAO identified 40 federally funded employment and training programs for which a key program goal is providing assistance to persons trying to find employment or improve their job skills. The most frequently cited target populations were Native Americans, youths, and veterans. Several programs target the same populations and provide similar services. This overlap could result in inefficiencies and redundancies. To assess whether such overlap is creating duplication among programs, agencies need to collect and analyze information on the eligibility requirements for the target populations. Federal regulations, such as the Government Performance and Results Act, provide agencies with the opportunity to coordinate their activities with other agencies. It also provides agencies with a framework to measure and evaluate the progress of their efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns about the effects of the globalization of national economies and the rapid pace of economic change have focused attention on federal programs designed to assist U.S. workers displaced by foreign trade and increased imports. GAO reviewed two programs run by the Department of Labor. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Program (TAA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program (NAFTA-TAA) have spent more than $1.3 billion in the past five years to help workers make the transition to new jobs, but it is unclear how effective these programs are in achieving their goals. Limited data indicate that 75 percent of workers who left the programs found jobs, but that many earned far less than their prior salaries. Training participation rates for both programs are low due to such factors as low unemployment rates and a healthy economy. GAO identified several factors that affected the delivery of services, including: (1) non-standardized eligibility criteria, (2) open-ended training enrollment, and (3) overall program administration. Further review of available data indicates that weak internal controls may result in the payment of benefits to ineligible beneficiaries."