[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 126 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35669-35670]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-16751]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control And Prevention
[INFO-99-23]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC) is providing opportunity for public comment on 
proposed data collection projects. To request more information on the 
proposed projects or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
instruments, call the CDC Reports Clearance Officer on (404) 639-7090.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including the use of automated collection techniques for other forms of 
information technology. Send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC Assistant 
Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24, Atlanta, GA 
30333. Written comments should be received with 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    1. National Hospital Discharge Survey--(0920-0212)--Extension--
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
    The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), which has been 
conducted continuously by the National Center for Health Statistics, 
CDC, since 1965, is the principal source of data on inpatient 
utilization of short-stay, non-Federal hospitals and is the only annual 
source of nationally representative estimates on the characteristics of 
discharges, the lengths of stay, diagnoses, surgical and non-surgical 
procedures, and the patterns of use of care in hospitals in various 
regions of the country. It is the benchmark against which special 
programmatic data sources are compared. Data collected through the NHDS 
are essential for evaluating health status of the population, for the 
planning of programs and policy to elevate the health status of the 
Nation, for studying morbidity trends, and for research activities in 
the health field. NHDS data have been used extensively in the 
production of goals for the Year 2000 Health Objectives and the 
subsequent monitoring of these goals. In addition, NHDS data provide 
annual updates for numerous tables in the Congressionally-mandated NCHS 
report, Health, United States. Data for the NHDS are collected annually 
on approximately 300,000 discharges from a nationally representative 
sample of noninstitutional hospitals, exclusive of Federal, military 
and Veterans' Administration hospitals. The data items collected are 
the basic core of variables contained in the Uniform Hospital Discharge 
Data Set (UHDDS). Data for approximately fifty-five percent of the 
responding hospitals are abstracted from medical records while the 
remainder of the hospitals supply data through commercial abstract 
service organizations, state data systems, in-house tapes or printouts. 
There is no actual cost to respondents since hospital staff who 
actively participate in the data collection effort are compensated by 
the government for their time.

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                                                                     Number of     Avg. rurden/
             Respondents (hospitals)                 Number of      responses/     response  (in   Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent         hrs)          (in hrs)
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Medical Record Abstracts:
    Primary Procedure Hospitals.................              73             250          .08333           1,521
    Alternate Procedure Hospitals...............             189             250          .01667             788
    In-House Tape or Printout Hospitals.........              37              12          .18333              81

[[Page 35670]]

 
    Update Form (Abstract Service Hospitals)....             175               2          .03333              12
    Quality Control Forms.......................              50              40          .01667              33
    Induction Forms.............................              15               1         2                    30
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
        Total...................................  ..............  ..............  ..............           2,465
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Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 99-16751 Filed 6-30-99; 8:45 am]
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