[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 211 (Tuesday, November 1, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67457-67458]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-28218]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-12-12AL]


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 for opportunity for public comment on 
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed 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 at (404) 639-5960 or send comments to Daniel Holcomb, 
CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 
30333 or send an email to [email protected].
    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 through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    The National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS): Ambulatory Care Pretest--
New--National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Section 306 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act (42 U.S.C. 
242k), as amended, authorizes that the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services (DHHS), acting through NCHS, shall collect statistics on the 
extent and nature of illness and disability of the population of the 
United States. This one-year clearance request seeks approval to pre-
test: (1) Data collection from hospital ambulatory departments 
including emergency departments (ED), outpatient departments (OPD), and 
ambulatory surgery locations (ASLs) through the

[[Page 67458]]

National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS) (OMB No. 0920-0212); (2) new 
questions on drug-related ED visits; and (3) new questions on 
colorectal cancer screening in ambulatory surgery visits.
    In 2012, a pretest of 30 hospitals will collect data using methods 
approved for the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 
(NHAMCS) (OMB No. 0920-0278) data collection. The proposed pretest will 
test the data collection procedures involved in integrating the NHAMCS 
into the NHCS. NHAMCS has provided data annually since 1992 concerning 
the nation's use of hospital emergency and outpatient departments, and 
since 2009, on hospital-based ASLs. If the pretest is successful, 
NHAMCS will be integrated into NHCS in order to increase the wealth of 
data on health care utilization in hospitals across episodes of care 
and to allow for linkages to other data sources such as the National 
Death Index and data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 
(CMS).
    The data items to be collected from the recruited hospitals in the 
pretest will include facility level data items such as visit volume, 
number of treatment areas, and information on electronic health record 
systems. Facility level data will be collected through in-person 
interviews and recorded on computerized survey instruments, at the 
hospital-level and at the ambulatory unit level. It is anticipated that 
each hospital will have approximately four ambulatory units.
    Patient level data items will include basic demographic 
information, name, address, social security number (if available), and 
medical record number (if available), and characteristics of the 
patients including admission and discharge dates, reason for visit, 
diagnoses, diagnostic services, procedures, medications, providers 
seen, and disposition. Patient visit data will be abstracted by field 
representatives of the data collection agent. A targeted number of 
patient visits will be sampled from each department depending on the 
type of department--approximately 100 across ambulatory units in the 
ED, 200 across ambulatory units in the OPD, and 100 across ambulatory 
units in ASLs.
    Secondly, the pretest will collect specific information on drug-
related visits to the ED. This endeavor, funded by the Center for 
Behavioral Health Statistics & Quality (CBHSQ) of the Substance Abuse & 
Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), will assess the feasibility of 
integrating the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) (OMB No. 0930-0078) 
into the emergency department component of the NHCS. In each of the 30 
pretest hospitals with an emergency department, a sample of all patient 
visits will be abstracted; for each drug-related visit within this 
sample, additional drug-related data will be abstracted. The only 
burden to the respondent at the patient visit level will be due to 
pulling and refiling of approximately 133 medical records at each 
ambulatory unit.
    Finally, the pretest will assess the feasibility of obtaining 
information on colorectal cancer screening during ambulatory surgery 
visits where a colonoscopy is performed. The endeavor is sponsored 
jointly by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and 
Promotion (NCCDPHP) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The 
questions will be added to the Ambulatory Surgery Patient Record form 
and will be completed for patients that have a colonoscopy performed at 
the sampled visit.
    Potential users of the NHCS ambulatory data include, but are not 
limited to CDC, Congressional Research Office, Office of the Assistant 
Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), American Health Care 
Association, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Bureau of 
the Census, state and local governments, and nonprofit organizations. 
There is no cost to respondents other than their time to participate.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Table
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                                                                     Number of      Avg. burden
      Type of respondent              Form           Number of    responses  per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents      respondent      (in hrs)          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospital Chief Executive       Hospital                       30               1               1              30
 Officer.                       Induction
                                Interview.
Ancillary Service Executive..  Ambulatory Unit               120               1           15/60              30
                                Induction.
Medical Record Clerk.........  Pulling and                   120             133            1/60             266
                                Refiling Records.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total....................  .................  ..............  ..............  ..............             326
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    Dated: October 26, 2011.
Daniel Holcomb,
Reports Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Science Officer, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2011-28218 Filed 10-31-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P