[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45617-45618]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18742]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60-Day 12-0914]


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 404-639-7570 
and send comments to Kimberly S. Lane, at 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

    Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in NJ Healthcare Facilities 
(0920-0914, Expiration 1/31/2015)--Revision--National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The long-term goal of the proposed project is to reduce violence 
against healthcare workers. The objective of the proposed study is two-
fold: (1) To examine healthcare facility compliance with the New Jersey 
Violence Prevention in Health Care Facilities Act, and (2) to evaluate 
the effectiveness of the regulations in this Act in reducing assault 
injuries to workers. Our central hypothesis is that facilities with 
high compliance with the regulations will have lower rates of employee 
violence-related injury. NIOSH received OMB approval (0920-0914) to 
evaluate the legislation at hospitals and to conduct a nurse survey. 
Data collection is ongoing at the hospitals and for the nurse survey. 
We are revising our existing ICR to include 2 new respondents which are 
nursing homes and home healthcare aides.
    First, we will conduct face-to-face interviews with the Chairs of 
the Violence Prevention Committees in 20 nursing homes who are in 
charge of overseeing compliance efforts. The purpose of the interviews 
is to measure compliance to the state regulations (violence prevention 
policies, reporting systems for violent events, violence prevention 
committee, written violence prevention plan, violence risk assessments, 
post incident response and violence prevention training). The details 
of their Workplace Violence Prevention Program are in their existing 
policies and procedures. Second, we will also collect assault injury 
data from nursing home's violent event reports 3 years pre-regulation 
(2009-2011) and 3 years post-regulation (2012-2014).This data is 
captured in existing OSHA logs and is publicly available. The purpose 
of collecting these data is to evaluate changes in assault injury rates 
before and after enactment of the regulations. A contractor will 
conduct the interviews, collect the nursing home's policies and 
procedures, and collect the assault injury data. Third, we will also 
conduct a home healthcare aide survey (4000 respondents or 1333 
annually). This survey will describe the workplace violence prevention 
training home healthcare aides receive. Healthcare workers are nearly 
five times more likely to be victims of violence than workers in all 
industries combined. While healthcare workers are not at particularly 
high risk for job-related homicide, nearly 60% of all nonfatal assaults 
occurring in private industry are experienced in healthcare. Six states 
have enacted laws to reduce violence against healthcare workers by 
requiring workplace violence prevention programs. However, little is 
understood about how effective these laws are in reducing violence 
against healthcare workers. We will test our central hypothesis by 
accomplishing the following specific aims:
    1. Compare the comprehensiveness of nursing home workplace violence 
prevention programs before and after enactment of the New Jersey 
regulations in nursing homes; Working hypothesis: Based on our 
preliminary research, we hypothesize that enactment of the regulations 
will improve the comprehensiveness of nursing home workplace violence 
prevention program policies, procedures and training.
    2. Describe the workplace violence prevention training home 
healthcare aides receive following enactment of the New Jersey 
regulations; Working hypothesis: Based on our preliminary research, we 
hypothesize that home healthcare aides receive at least 80% of the 
workplace violence prevention training components mandated in the New 
Jersey regulations.
    3. Examine patterns of assault injuries to nursing home workers 
before and after enactment of the regulations; Working hypothesis: 
Based on our preliminary research, we hypothesize that rates of assault 
injuries to nursing home workers will decrease following enactment of 
the regulations.
    Healthcare facilities falling under the regulations are eligible 
for study

[[Page 45618]]

inclusion (i.e., nursing homes). A contractor will conduct face-to-face 
interviews with the chairs of the Violence Prevention Committees at 20 
nursing homes, who as stated in regulations, are in charge of 
overseeing compliance efforts. These individuals will include nursing 
home administrators. The purpose of the interviews is to measure 
compliance to the state regulations (Aim 1). The interview form was 
pilot-tested by the study team in the Fall 2010 and includes the 
following components as mandated in the regulations: violence 
prevention policies, reporting systems for violent events, violence 
prevention committee, written violence prevention plan, violence risk 
assessments, post incident response and violence prevention training. 
The nursing home's policy and procedures documents will be obtained by 
the contractor to provide details about their workplace violence 
prevention program. Questions will also be asked about barriers and 
facilitators to developing the violence prevention program. These data 
will be collected in the post-regulation time period.
    A contractor will also collect assault injury data from nursing 
home violent event reports 3 years pre-regulation (2009-2011) and 3 
years post-regulation (2012-2014). This data will be collected from 
existing OSHA logs. The purpose of collecting these data is to evaluate 
changes in assault injury rates before and after enactment of the 
regulations (Aim 3). The following information will be abstracted from 
the OSHA logs: date, time and location of the incident; identity, job 
title and job task of the victim; identity of the perpetrator; 
description of the violent act, including whether a weapon was used; 
description of physical injuries; number of employees in the vicinity 
when the incident occurred, and their actions in response to the 
incident; recommendations of police advisors, employees or consultants, 
and; actions taken by the facility in response to the incident. No 
employee or perpetrator identifiable information will be collected.
    In addition to nursing homes, home healthcare aides will also be 
recruited. These home healthcare aides will be recruited from a mailing 
list of home healthcare aides certified from the State of New Jersey 
Division of Consumer Affairs Board of Nursing. The mailing list was 
selected as the population source of workers due to the ability to 
capture all home healthcare aides in New Jersey. Therefore, a sampling 
frame based on home healthcare aides will be used to select workers to 
participate in the study. A random sample of 4000 (1333 annually) home 
healthcare aides will be recruited for study participation. A third-
party contractor will be responsible for sending the survey to the 
random sample of 4000 home healthcare aides (1333 annually). The Health 
Professionals and Allied Employees union will promote the survey to 
their members. To maintain the worker's anonymity, the home healthcare 
agency in which he/she works will not be identified. The survey will 
describe the workplace violence prevention training home healthcare 
aides receive following enactment of the New Jersey regulations (Aim 
2). There are no costs to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                      No. of      Average burden
          Respondents                 Form            No. of       responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       (in hrs)        (in hrs)
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Hospital Administrator........  Interview.......              17               1               1              17
Nursing Administrator.........  Interview.......               7               1               1               7
Nurse Survey..................  Survey..........            1333               1           20/60             445
Home Healthcare Aides.........  Survey..........            1333               1           20/60             445
                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............             914
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Kimberly S. Lane,
Deputy Director, Office of Science Integrity, Office of the Associate 
Director for Science, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-18742 Filed 7-31-12; 8:45 am]
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