[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 160 (Thursday, August 20, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42075-42076]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-20073]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

[Document Identifier: OS-0990-New]


Agency Emergency Information Collection Clearance Request for 
Public Comment

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.
    In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Secretary (OS), 
Department of Health and Human Services, is publishing the following 
summary of a proposed information collection request for public 
comment. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding this 
burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, 
including any of the following subjects: (1) The necessity and utility 
of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of 
the agency's functions; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) 
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and (4) the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology to minimize the information 
collection burden. To obtain copies of the supporting statement and any 
related forms for the proposed paperwork collections referenced above, 
e-mail your request, including your address, phone number, OMB number, 
and OS document identifier, to [email protected], or call 
the Reports Clearance Office on (202) 690-6162. Written comments and 
recommendations for the proposed information collections must be 
directed to the OS Paperwork Clearance Officer at the above e-mail 
address within 7-days.
    Proposed Project: HAvBED Assessment for 2009-H1N1 Influenza Serious 
Illness, OMB No. 0990-NEW-HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Office of Preparedness and Emergency 
Operations (OPEO).
    Abstract: The Office of the Secretary (OS) is requesting emergency 
action for this clearance by the Office of Management and Budget no 
later than August 28, 2009. ASPR is requesting emergency processing 
procedures for this application because this information is needed 
immediately to help reduce morbidity and mortality from 2009-H1N1 by 
providing decision makers with timely, usable information regarding the 
status of the health care system. The urgent timeline is supported by 
the fact that Americans are already becoming ill and even dying due to 
2009-H1N1 infection, and that numerous countries in the Southern 
Hemisphere (who are currently experiencing their traditional influenza 
season) have had a large surge in seriously ill patients. The Southern 
Hemisphere experience is leading to valid anticipation of many 
additional seriously ill patients in the US over the upcoming months. 
During the spring and summer novel H1N1 response in the US, we did not 
have an adequate understanding of disease severity, health care system 
resource needs such as ventilators and ICU beds, and did not learn from 
our collective experiences caring for these seriously ill patients. If 
we do not develop a national data collection mechanism for seriously 
ill people infected with H1N1 then we cannot adequately support 
hospitals to care for these patients.
    Pursuant to section 2811 of the PHS Act, the ASPR serves as the 
principal advisor to the Secretary on all matters related to Federal 
public health and medical preparedness and response for public health 
emergencies. In addition to other tasks, the ASPR coordinates with 
State, local, and tribal public health officials and healthcare systems 
to ensure effective integration of Federal public health and medical 
assets during an emergency. ASPR's National Hospital Preparedness 
Program (HPP) awards cooperative agreements to each of the 50 states, 
the Pacific Islands, and US territories (for a total of 62 awardees) to 
improve surge capacity and enhance community and hospital preparedness 
for public health emergencies. These 62 awardees are responsible for 
enhancing the preparedness of the nation's nearly 6000 hospitals. These 
awards are authorized under section 391C-2 of the Public Health Service 
(PHS) Act. For this data collection the 62 HPP awardees will gather 
data from the 6000 hospitals using a Web-based interface known as 
HAvBED. The data gathered from the hospitals will be reported to the 
HHS Secretary's Operations Center weekly for 6 months. If the 
seriousness of the stress on the hospitals increases daily reporting 
may be requested.
    Depending on the nature of the existing systems at the hospitals, 
the data may be obtained manually or readily available electronically 
through existing systems. States would have their own procedures for 
training staff on how to use their existing systems, so there would not 
be an additional training burden for learning those systems. For manual 
data collection using the HAvBED system personnel would need to be 
trained. The system is easy to use and intuitive. The user guide 
provides information to help people quickly understand how to use the 
system. See Attachment 2 for a copy of the user guide. Based on the 
experience of the system administrator in working with users, training 
time to learn the HAvBED data entry procedures is no more than one 
hour. On average it takes 40 minutes of explanation and 20 minutes of 
hands on practice with the training site.
    The actual data collection time for the hospitals is approximately 
1 hour and the states will spend approximately 3 hours compiling the 
information from all of the hospitals in their State/territory. For 
automated systems the time would be less. These estimates are based on 
a pilot test of the system. This cost model assumes daily data 
collection over 3 months and weekly for 3 months.

                                   6 Months Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
               Type of respondent                    Number of      responses/       hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
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Hospital staff (Training).......................            6000               1               1            6000

[[Page 42076]]

 
Hospital staff (data collection)................            6000              96               1         576,000
State/Territory Preparedness staff (training)...              62               1               1              62
State/Territory Preparedness staff (data                      62             288               3          53,568
 collection)....................................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............             386  ..............         635,630
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The burden was determined by asking the States that participated in 
a pilot study to report who collected the data and how long it took 
them to gather the information.

Terry Nicolosi,
Paperwork Reduction Act Reports Clearance Officer, Office of the 
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E9-20073 Filed 8-19-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P