Question 1: What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002? Why did it come about? How have the new rules in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 affected the way accounting departments and companies operate? What are some positive outcomes from these changes?

Question 2: SOX provided for increased external evaluation; additionally, it provided for increased internal review to deal with the scandals that you referenced, as well. For example, a whistleblower element was included in the Act. Is anyone familiar with this and do you think it is effective?

Question 3: Theft is a huge concern for many organizations. As a result, many organizations utilize back ground checks prior to hiring employees. We do this at our organization and I am always amazed at some of the things that come up that have not been disclosed in the interview process. A new trend that I have heard about is personality testing--our human resource department is not sold on this and will not let us explore these options. Is anyone familiar with this process? Do you feel these are good internal controls for an organization?

Question 4: One thing that I think employees do not understand is that internal controls can also benefit them. Many look at the controls as simply a protection of assets for the organization, but that is not always the case. In your opinion, how can internal controls benefit the individual employee in your particular example? Anyone else have thoughts?

Question 5: Many organizations either perform a risk assessment or have an outside firm do it for them. Is anyone familiar with this? What happens in this process and what results to you get from the assessment? Anyone have thoughts?

Question 6: When we think of internal controls, we tend to focus on money and inventory. However, other areas come into play, such as quality control. Employee turnover can hamper quality. Our organization has a type of quality control committee called the Performance Improvement Committee. It is composed of key players from every department and quality improvement is the focus. They meet monthly and continually document ways to improve procedures, safety and controls. Employee activities, including patient satisfaction surveys, are included as part of our process. Does anyone else have a quality control committee at their place of employment?