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Office of Budget

Fiscal Year 2005 Performance and Accountability Report
Published November 15, 2005

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Strategic Goal Four: Contributing to the Nation's Well-Being

Strategic Objective 4.3: Academic Partnerships

Sustain partnerships with the academic community that enhance the quality of care to veterans and provide high-quality educational experiences for health care trainees.

Performance Trends and Impact of FY 2005 Result

Performance Trend FY 2005 Impact
Supporting Measure: Medical residents' and other trainees' scores on a VHA Survey assessing their clinical training experience
* Actual data through August 2005. Final data are not yet available.
2001 84
2002 83
2003 83
2004 84
2005 Result 84*
2005 Plan 85
2006 Plan 85
Strategic Target 85
VA's 2005 score of 84 nearly met the target score of 85. Since VA is the largest provider of health care training in the country, continued satisfaction of medical residents and other trainees indicates their training experiences are of high quality. This benefits VA in its ability to attract highly trained and qualified health care professionals, which results in high-quality health care for the veteran.

Related Information

Major Management Challenges

Neither VA's Office of Inspector General nor the Government Accountability Office identified any major management challenges related to this objective.

Program Evaluations

No independent program evaluations have been conducted that specifically address this objective.

Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Evaluation

The Administration conducted a PART evaluation of VA's Medical Care program during 2003. However, the evaluation did not specifically cover any aspects of the medical education program.

New Policies and Procedures

VA issued a new directive on educational affiliation agreements requiring such agreements to be in place before trainees in non-VA education programs receive clinical training at VA facilities and before trainees in VA-sponsored programs receive training at non-VA facilities. In the past, institutions sending trainees to VA facilities for fewer than 40 hours per year-or for observation only-were exempt from the requirement.

VA issued a new resident supervision handbook outlining procedural requirements pertaining to the supervision of residents and focusing on resident supervision from the educational perspective. The handbook reflects new standards for documentation of supervision in various settings.

Other Important Results

The fourth system-wide Learners' Perceptions Survey was conducted to provide information to support VHA's performance measure for its teaching mission. The survey provides a discrete measure of the quality of VA's teaching mission and identifies areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement in the clinical training experience. This effort will enhance the quality of care for VA patients. The reports include comparative results of the past 2 years' surveys by type of trainee as well as facility highlights to assist management in identifying areas for improvement.

The Annual Report on Residency Training programs, now in its third year online, was extensively updated in 2005 to increase ease of entry and facilitate VISN and VHA oversight of compliance with resident supervision policy.