[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 75 (Friday, April 17, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21443-21444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-08170]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-20-1290; Docket No. CDC-2020-0038]
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 effort to reduce public burden and maximize the
utility of government information, invites the general public and other
Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed
information collection project titled National Healthcare Safety
Network (NHSN) Patient Module for Coronavirus (COVID-19) Surveillance
in Healthcare Facilities. Two modules will be added within NHSN to
capture the daily, aggregate impact of COVID-19 on healthcare
facilities and monitor medical capacity to respond at local, state, and
national levels.
DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before June 16, 2020.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2020-
0038 by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, 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. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments
to Regulations.gov.
Please note: Submit all comments 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 Jeffrey M. Zirger, 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].
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 the OMB for approval. To
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a
proposed data collection as described below.
The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and
4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated,
[[Page 21444]]
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submissions of responses.
5. Assess information collection costs.
Proposed Project
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Patient Impact Module for
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Surveillance in Healthcare Facilities--New--
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID),
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
The Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP), National
Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects data from healthcare
facilities in the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) under OMB
Control Number 0920-0666. NHSN is a public health surveillance system
that collects, analyzes, reports, and makes available data for
monitoring, measuring, and responding to healthcare associated
infections (HAIs), antimicrobial use and resistance, blood transfusion
safety events, and the extent to which healthcare facilities adhere to
infection prevention practices and antimicrobial stewardship.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19
a pandemic, and the President of the United States (U.S.) proclaimed
the outbreak a national emergency on March 13, 2020. As rates of
infection continue to rise across the U.S., healthcare facilities and
public health departments are facing significant strain on patient care
and infection prevention efforts. NHSN plans to introduce a new COVID-
19 module in the Patient Safety Component that will enable hospitals to
report daily COVID-19 patient counts to NHSN, and NHSN in turn will
enable state and local health departments to gain immediate access to
the COVID-19 data for hospitals in their jurisdiction.
NHSN's role as a shared platform for HAI surveillance provides a
valuable foundation for COVID-19 surveillance. A very large number of
the nation's hospitals participate in NHSN, and infection
preventionists (IPs) in those hospitals already use NHSN for
surveillance and reporting. Hospitals' IPs will voluntarily report
COVID-19 patient surveillance data to NHSN by manual entry or by
uploading a comma separated values (CSV) file. State and local health
departments will be able to gain immediate access to this data reported
by facilities in their jurisdictions via existing NHSN groups.
This information will be used to inform the overall real-time
COVID-19 response efforts and possible resource allocation, including
an understanding of cases that are community-acquired versus
healthcare-associated. CDC and health departments alike will use this
surveillance data to prioritize the allocation of resources and
response efforts. Metrics collected in NHSN will include:
Number of and proportion of hospitalized patients with
suspected or confirmed COVID-19
Number of and proportion of hospitalized patients with
suspected or confirmed COVID-19 that are on mechanical ventilators
Number of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who
are in the emergency department (ED) or any overflow locations awaiting
an inpatient bed
Number of and proportion of inpatient COVID-19 patients with
suspected or confirmed COVID-19 with onset 14 or more days after
hospitalization (most likely healthcare-associated)
Proportion of inpatient beds occupied by those who are
suspected or confirmed with COVID-19 (or proportion of inpatients who
are suspected or confirmed with COVID-19)
There will be no cost to respondents other than their time to
complete the COVID-19 Patient Impact Module Form on a daily basis, for
180 days. The estimated annualized time burden is 292,500 hours.
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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Microbiologist................ COVID-19 Patient 3,900 180 25/60 292,500
Impact Module
Form.
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Total..................... ................ .............. .............. .............. 292,500
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2020-08170 Filed 4-16-20; 8:45 am]
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