[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 87 (Monday, May 5, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24603-24604]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-9791]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

    In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed 
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration will publish periodic summaries of proposed 
projects. To request more information on the proposed projects or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the SAMHSA 
Reports Clearance Officer on (240) 276-1243.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are 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 through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.

Proposed Project: Drug Abuse Warning Network (OMB No. 0930-0078)--
Revision

    The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is an ongoing data system 
that collects information on drug-related medical emergencies as 
reported from about 350 hospitals nationwide, and drug-related deaths 
as reported from 11 states with centralized Medical Examiner offices 
and 125 medical examiners/coroner jurisdictions (ME/C) in 32 
metropolitan areas. DAWN provides national and metropolitan estimates 
of substances involved with drug-related emergency department (ED) 
visits; disseminates information about substances involved in deaths 
investigated by participating medical examiners and coroners (ME/Cs); 
tracks drug abuse patterns, trends, and the emergence of new 
substances; monitors post-market adverse drug incidents; assesses 
health hazards associated with the use of illicit, prescription, and 
over-the-counter drugs; and generates information for national and 
local drug abuse policy and program planning. DAWN data are used by 
Federal, State, and local agencies, as well as

[[Page 24604]]

universities, pharmaceutical companies, and the media.
    From 2009 to 2011, DAWN will continue to recruit hospitals in the 
13 oversampled metropolitan areas and in the remainder of the U.S. in 
order to improve the precision of estimates, adding approximately 43 
sampled hospitals that are currently not participating. In 2009 and 
2010, DAWN plans to recruit 2 States with centralized ME/C systems. To 
achieve full participation by ME/Cs in the metropolitan areas currently 
covered, DAWN plans to recruit approximately 20 more ME/Cs from the 13 
metropolitan areas, and approximately 20 ME/Cs from metropolitan areas 
in the rest of the country. DAWN data are submitted electronically, 
using eHERS (electronic Hospital Emergency Reporting System) and eMERS 
(electronic Medical Examiner Reporting System). In most of the 
facilities participating in DAWN (83 percent of the EDs and 58 percent 
of the ME/C offices), data are collected by government contractor 
staff; these facilities are not included in the burden statement 
because the facility staff are not involved in data collection. The 
annual burden estimates for those EDs and ME/C offices that collect the 
data using their own staff are shown below. There will be minor 
editorial changes to both the ED and ME/C reporting forms to simplify 
reporting. On the ME/C reporting form, a data element for case 
narrative will be added. These changes are not anticipated to impact 
the overall burden.

                                 Annualized Reporting Burden for DAWN: 2009-2011
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                                                     Estimated
                                     Number of       number of         Total      Estimated time    Total hour
            Activity                respondents    responses per     responses     per  response      burden
                                        \1\         respondent                     (in minutes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              Emergency Departments
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ED Chart review.................              61          24,551       1,497,604               3          74,880
Case data upload................              61             556          33,906               3           1,695
ED activity report..............              61             240          14,640               2             488
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subtotal....................              61  ..............  ..............  ..............          77,063
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                                             State Medical Examiners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Death investigation records                    6           3,099          18,593               4           1,240
 review.........................
Case data upload................               6             338           2,027               3             101
ME/C activity report............               6             240           1,440               2              48
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subtotal....................               6  ..............  ..............  ..............           1,389
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Individual Medical Examiner/Coroners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Death investigation records                   84           1,097          92,181               4           6,145
 review.........................
Case data upload................              84              89           7,471               3             374
ME/C activity report............              84             240          20,160               2             672
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subtotal....................              84  ..............  ..............  ..............           7,191
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Total...................             151  ..............  ..............  ..............         85,643
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\1\ Data collection for the 61 EDs and 101 ME/Cs where data are collected by facility staff or other staff (does
  not include data collected by DAWN operations contractor staff).
\2\ In participating States, a single office reports for all jurisdictions; in other areas, a single medical
  examiner/coroner office may report for multiple jurisdictions. For this reason, the number of respondents is
  smaller than the number of ME/C jurisdictions participating in DAWN.

    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
Room 7-1044, One Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857 and e-mail her 
a copy at [email protected]. Written comments should be 
received within 60 days of this notice.

    Dated: April 28, 2008.
Elaine Parry,
Acting Director, Office of Program Services.
 [FR Doc. E8-9791 Filed 5-2-08; 8:45 am]
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