[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 59 (Friday, March 27, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16391-16393]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-07038]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-15-0914; Docket No. CDC-2015-0012]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 
continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on Workplace 
Violence Prevention Programs in New Jersey Healthcare Facilities (OMB 
No. 0920-0914, expires 02/29/2016). The National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is requesting a two year 
extension in order to complete nursing home interviews.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 26, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2015-
0012 by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulation.gov. Follow the instructions 
for submitting comments.
    Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

    Please note: All public comment should be submitted through the 
Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the 
address listed above.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: [email protected].

[[Page 16392]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    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; (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; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, 
install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of 
collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to 
train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of 
information, to search data sources, to complete and review the 
collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.

Proposed Project

    Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in New Jersey Healthcare 
Facilities (OMB No. 0920-0914, expires 02/29/2016)--Extension--National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 
is requesting a two-year extension to complete the nursing home 
interviews for the project entitled ``Workplace Violence Prevention 
Programs in New Jersey Healthcare Facilities''. 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 at nursing homes, to conduct a nurse 
survey and to conduct a home healthcare aide survey. Data collection is 
complete for the hospitals, the nurse survey, and the home healthcare 
aide survey. We are requesting an extension to evaluate the legislation 
at nursing homes.
    First, we will conduct face-to-face interviews with the Chairs of 
the Violence Prevention Committees in 40 nursing homes (20 in New 
Jersey and 20 in Virginia) 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 three years pre-regulation (2009-2011) and three 
years post-regulation (2012-2014). This data is captured in existing 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (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 (OSHA logs).
    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 occupations.
    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. 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 inclusion (i.e., nursing homes). A contractor will conduct 
face-to-face interviews with the chairs of the Violence Prevention 
Committees at 40 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; a NIOSH employee will complete the abstraction form 
from the policy and procedures documents received from the contractor. 
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.

[[Page 16393]]

    A contractor will also collect assault injury data from nursing 
home violent event reports three years pre-regulation (2009-2011) and 
three years post-regulation (2012-2014). This data will be collected 
from existing OSHA logs; a NIOSH employee will fill out the Employee 
Incident Form from the OSHA logs received from the contractor. The 
purpose of collecting these data is to evaluate changes in assault 
injury rates before and after enactment of the regulations (Aim 2). 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.
    There are no costs to respondents other than their time. The total 
estimated burden hours are 120.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondents           Form name       respondents    responses per   response  (in    (in hours)
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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Nursing Home Administrator....  Interview.......              40               1               1              40
Nursing Home Administrator....  Abstraction Form              40               1               1              40
Nursing Home Administrator....  Employee                      40               1               1              40
                                 Incident Form.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............             120
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2015-07038 Filed 3-26-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P