[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.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    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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