[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 37 (Friday, February 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9556-9558]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-1716]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS.

ACTION:  Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the intention of the Agency for 
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) allow the proposed information collection 
project: ``Use of IT and Health IT Among Health Centers funded under 
Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act''. In accordance with the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)), AHRQ invites the public to comment on this proposed 
information collection.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by April 25, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be submitted to: Cynthia D. 
McMichael, Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, 540 Gaither Road, Suite 
5022, Rockville, MD 20850. Copies of the proposed collection plan, data 
collection instrument, and specific details on the estimated burden can 
be obtained from AHRQ's Reports Clearance Officer.

[[Page 9557]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cynthia D. McMichael, AHRQ, Reports 
Clearance Officer, (301) 427-1651.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Proposed Project

``Use of IT and Health IT Among Health Centers funded under Section 330 
of the Public Health Service Act.''

    This project is being conducted under contact 290-04-0016 between 
the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and the National Opinion 
Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, the prime 
contractor for AHRQ's National Resource Center for Health Information 
Technology. AHRQ, in close collaboration with the Health Resources and 
Services Administration's (HRSA) Bureau of Primary Health care (BPHC), 
is requesting that NORC conduct an assessment of the use of information 
technology (IT) at ambulatory health centers funded under Section 330 
of the Public Health Services Act. Specifically, the project will 
assess IT applications which assist in improving the quality, safety, 
efficiency, and effectiveness of health care (health IT) at HRSA-funded 
ambulatory health centers.
    For the purposes of this project, AHRQ and HRSA have drafted an 
Intra-Agency Agreement (AHRQ IAA 05-404R-05) which establishes 
roles and responsibilities for both agencies. HRSA, AHRQ and NORC will 
work collaboratively to develop the analytic questions, survey tool, 
sampling strategy and analysis plan. AHRQ and HRSA will review data 
runs as well as descriptive and comparative analysis. NORC will field 
the survey, conduct descriptive and comparative analysis, and report 
findings to both AHRQ and HRSA.
    The HRSA-funded health centers from a key part of the nation's 
health care ``safety net,'' delivering primary car medical services to 
vulnerable populations. Special administrative requirements, including 
tracking and reporting on their patient populations, maintaining 
patient-specific data and supporting disease registries for vulnerable 
populations, make health centers a prime target for implementing health 
IT applications. As such, health centers represent and early laboratory 
for health IT adoption, use, and impact among ambulatory health care 
providers.
    The study will inquire about the gains and challenges experienced 
at selected health centers in the implementation of IT programs. 
Information will be collected with regard to the following topics and 
issues: current state of Health Information Technology (HIT) use, goals 
and approach to HIT, readiness for HIT adoption and expansion, 
management of HIT issues and adherence to requirements, and overall 
experience with HIT implementation of sustainability, including 
successes experienced and barriers encountered.
    Findings from the proposed collection will assist policy makers at 
AHRQ, HRSA and elsewhere as they seek to build on this early IT 
adoption among health centers and promote policy efforts to encourage 
the implementation of IT in ambulatory health care settings to achieve 
efficiency and quality of care objectives.

Date Confidentiality

    To obtain the necessary information, surveys will be conducted with 
staff at selected HRSA-funded health centers. The study will primarily 
involve the use of web-based interviews, although some telephone 
interviews will be conducted when selected health centers do not 
respond online. All appropriate measures will be taken to protect the 
confidentiality of individual respondents and their institution. Web 
surveys are administered using an encrypted SSL connection using 
secured web data collection servers. Access to response data will be 
limited on a strictly ``need to access'' basis and any person accessing 
the data will have signed a corporate confidentially pledge which 
clearly enumerates their responsibilities in this regard including 
AHRQ's statutory confidentiality requirements and specific consequences 
of improper disclosures or allowing breaches in confidentiality.

Methods of Collection

    The data will be collected from a systematic random sample of 450 
of the approximately 920 total HRSA Section 330-funded Health Centers. 
Centers will be chosen stratified by urbanicity (urban, rural and 
suburban) and geographical area. The expected response rate of 75 
percent will result in data from approximately 338 centers.
    One survey will be completed by each organization. Multiple 
individuals from each Health Center may be respondents, including 
senior management and administrative personnel, information technology 
staff, and clinicians.
    Based on experience with surveys of similar length, the estimate is 
that the questionnaire will take one hour to complete. The primary 
method of data collection will be web-based self-administered 
questionnaire. All sample centers will receive an advance e-mail 
followed a week later by an e-mail containing instructions for 
accessing the Web survey. We will use a multiple mode approach to 
follow-up with centers that do not complete the survey within 4 weeks 
of the initial e-mailing.

                                                           Estimated Annual Respondent Burden
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                                                                                                       Estimated total                      Estimated
                                                                        Number of      Estimated time     burden to     Average  hourly   annual cost to
                       Data collection effort                          respondents    per  respondent    respondents       wage rate      health center
                                                                                         (minutes)         (hours)                          respondent
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Online and Telephone Surveys *.....................................             338               60              338           $42.38      $14,324.44
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* Using the mean of the average wages for managers in medicine, physicians and computer systems analyst/scientist as reported in the National
  Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, 2004, (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2004), we
  estimate the total hourly cost to respondents to be $42.38 or $14,324.44 across all 338 health center respondents.

Request for Comments

    In accordance with the above cited legislation, comments on AHRQ's 
information collection are requested with regard to any of the 
following: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of functions of AHRQ, including 
whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy 
of AHRQ's estimate of burden (including hours and cost) 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 upon the respondents, 
including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and included in the request for OMB approval of the proposed 
information

[[Page 9558]]

collection. All comments will become a matter of public record.

    Dated: February 16, 2006.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
Director.
[FR Doc. 06-1716 Filed 2-23-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-90-M