[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 2, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5330-5331]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-2124]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

[Document Identifier: OS-0990-0344 Extension]


Agency Information Collection Request. 60-Day Public Comment 
Request

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 an 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 must 
be received within 60-days and directed to the OS Paperwork Clearance 
Officer at the above e-mail address.
    Proposed Project: HAvBED Assessment for 2009-H1N1 Influenza Serious 
Illness, OMB No. 0990-0344 Extension 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 clearance 
by the Office of Management and Budget to extend data collection 
regarding the status of the health care system. ASPR/OPEO received 
expedited clearance for data collection during the 2009-H1N1 pandemic. 
Since September 2009 HHS has collected data on bed availability, health 
care system resource needs such as ventilators and health care system 
stress such as implementation of surge strategies. These data have 
proven useful to ASPR in fulfilling its responsibilities for 
preparedness and response.
    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 U.S. 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 6,000 
hospitals. These awards are authorized under section 391C-2 of the 
Public Health Service (PHS) Act.
    For this data collection the situation will dictate how often the 
data will be collected using the Web-based interface known as HAvBED. 
For a large scale emergency data will be collected nationally from all 
62 HPP awardees to include all 6,000 hospitals in HAvBED system. For 
smaller scale events data collection will be targeted to individual 
states or regions. Data may also be gathered during exercises. 
Notifications for data collection are sent to the affected states 
through the HPP program staff. The data gathered from the hospitals are 
reported to the HHS Secretary's Operations Center to inform situational 
awareness and national preparedness. During the 2009-H1N1 response 
nation-wide data were collected weekly for 3 months and then twice 
monthly for 3 months. Since the HAvBED data collection is activated in 
response to emergencies it is impossible to predict the exact frequency 
of data collection. It is anticipated that the minimal data request 
will be a national data call of all awardees and hospitals once per 
month throughout the year. If the seriousness of the stress on the 
hospitals increases up to 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 have already been 
trained for the 2009-H1N1 data collection. Only newly hired personnel 
would require training. The system is easy to use and intuitive. There 
is a user guide that provides information to help people quickly 
understand how to use the system. 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. The frequency of data 
collection will depend on the number of emergencies and exercises 
throughout the year. It is not possible to predict the exact number, 
but it is estimated that data collection will range from 12 per year 
(once per month) to a maximum of 102 times per year (daily for 3 
months, twice monthly for 3 months and monthly for 6 months). The cost 
model assumes the maximal annual estimated burden, but is likely to be 
much less than the estimate.

                                          Annual Estimated Burden Hours
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                                                                      No. of      Average burden
               Type of respondent                    Number of      responses/       hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospital staff (training).......................           6,000               1               1           6,000
Hospital staff (data collection)................           6,000             102               1         612,000
State/Territory Preparedness staff (training)...              62               1               1              62

[[Page 5331]]

 
State/Territory Preparedness staff (data                      62             306               3          56,916
 collection)....................................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............             408  ..............         674,978
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Seleda Perryman,
Office of the Secretary, Paperwork Reduction Act Reports Clearance 
Officer.
[FR Doc. 2010-2124 Filed 2-1-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P