[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 84 (Monday, May 2, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25639-25640]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-09320]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of request for information regarding potential Consumer 
Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System (CAHPS[supreg]) survey 
for Inpatient Mental Healthcare settings.

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SUMMARY: AHRQ invites public comment on its Request for Information 
(RFI) about a potential Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and 
Systems (CAHPS[supreg]) survey to assess patient care experiences in 
inpatient mental healthcare settings. Specifically, this RFI seeks 
comment regarding methodologically sound survey and data collection 
approaches of care experiences of those receiving inpatient mental 
healthcare. In addition, this RFI seeks comments about any unique 
considerations or concerns associated with collection of such patient 
care experience information. There currently is no CAHPS instrument 
designed to measure care from the patient perspective in this setting. 
This request for information will help inform the development of a 
scientifically sound survey to measure the experience of patients 
receiving inpatient mental healthcare.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by July 1, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may submit comments electronically to 
[email protected] with the subject line Inpatient Mental Health 
Experience of Care RFI. Non-electronic responses will also be accepted. 
Please mail to CAHPS RFI; Westat; 1600 Research Blvd.; RB 1186S; 
Rockville, MD 20850.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions may be addressed to Caren 
Ginsberg, Director, CAHPS and SOPS Programs, Center for Quality 
Improvement and Patient Safety, [email protected], or (301) 
427-1894.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: AHRQ is seeking public comment about data 
collection approaches and strategies to optimize the meaningfulness of 
patient experience information from patients receiving inpatient mental 
healthcare to inform the development of a CAHPS survey. AHRQ's CAHPS 
Program advances scientific understanding of patient healthcare 
experiences using surveys developed for different healthcare settings. 
The CAHPS surveys cover topics that are important to patients and that 
they are best able to assess, such as communication with providers and 
access to health care services. This information can address the 
information needs of survey sponsors, users, patients, consumers, and 
other stakeholders.
    Specific questions of interest to AHRQ include, but are not limited 
to, the following:
    1. What are the highest priority aspects of patient experiences 
with inpatient mental healthcare that should be included in measures 
and surveys?
    a. Why are these aspect(s) of patient experience a high priority 
for inclusion within assessment tools?
    b. What other topic area(s) should new measures and/or surveys 
assessing patient experiences with inpatient mental healthcare address?
    2. What are the benefits of collecting information about the 
experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings from (a) 
patients and/or (b) patients' family members/caregivers?
    a. What are the benefits and/or limitations of asking patients to 
respond to a patient experience of care survey?
    b. What are the benefits and/or limitations of asking family 
members/caregivers to respond to surveys about patient experience on 
behalf of patients?
    c. What are the benefits and/or limitations of asking family 
members/caregivers to respond to surveys about their personal 
experience with their family member?
    3. What, if any, challenges are there to collecting information 
about the experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings?
    4. What would facilitate the collection of information about the 
experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings?
    5. For which respondent group(s) should measures and/or surveys be 
developed? For example, should measure and/or surveys be developed for 
adults, children, or both?
    a. In which language(s) should measures and/or surveys about the 
experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings be 
administered?

[[Page 25640]]

    b. Which patient conditions (e.g., personality disorders; 
depression; schizophrenia; substance use disorder; co-occurring 
disorders (e.g., mental health and substance use disorders; etc.)) 
should these measures and/or surveys focus on in documenting the 
experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings?
    c. In what kinds of inpatient facilities, including public and 
private psychiatric hospitals, nonfederal general hospitals with 
separate psychiatric units, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 
medical centers, and day treatment or partial hospitalization mental 
health facilities should these measures and/or surveys be administered?
    6. What measures and surveys that assess the experience of patients 
in inpatient mental health settings are currently being used?
    a. Which respondent group(s) (e.g., patients in inpatient settings; 
family members; providers; etc.) are asked to complete these measures 
and surveys?
    b. In which language(s) are these current measures and surveys 
administered?
    c. Which patient conditions (e.g., personality disorders; 
depression; schizophrenia; substance use disorder; co-occurring 
disorders; etc.) are the focus of current measures and surveys about 
the experience of patients in inpatient mental health settings?
    d. What kinds of inpatient facilities including public and private 
psychiatric hospitals, nonfederal general hospitals with separate 
psychiatric units, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical 
centers, and day treatment or partial hospitalization mental health 
facilities are using these current measures or surveys?
    e. What patient experiences relative to the use of restraint and 
seclusion in inpatient facilities are captured using these current 
measures or surveys?
    f. Do any current measures or surveys collect information about the 
degree of adherence to patient rights in inpatient facilities?
    g. How are these currently used measures and surveys administered 
(e.g., paper-and-pencil; web-based; etc.) to these respondents 
group(s)?
    h. How are the results/findings of these measures and surveys of 
patient experience in inpatient mental healthcare used and in which 
setting(s)?
    i. What is working well/what are the strengths of these measures 
and surveys currently in use?
    j. What content areas are missing from these measures and surveys 
currently in use?
    k. What content areas are low priority or not useful in these 
currently used measures and surveys, and why?
    l. What, if any, challenges are there in administering these 
measures and surveys in current use?
    m. How are the results/findings of these current measures and 
surveys used to evaluate and/or improve care quality in inpatient 
mental healthcare settings?
    Respondents are welcome to address as many or as few of these 
questions as they choose and/or to address additional areas of interest 
not listed.
    This RFI is for planning purposes only and should not be construed 
as a policy, solicitation for applications, or as an obligation on the 
part of the Government to provide support for any ideas in response to 
it. AHRQ will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at 
its discretion, and will not provide comments to any respondent's 
submission. However, responses to this RFI may be reflected in future 
solicitation(s) or policies. Respondents are advised that the 
Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the 
information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to 
any information submitted. No proprietary, classified, confidential or 
sensitive information should be included in your response. The 
Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical 
information in any resultant solicitation(s). The contents of all 
submissions will be made available to the public upon request. 
Submitted materials must be publicly available or able to be made 
public.

    Dated: April 26, 2022.
Marquita Cullom,
Associate Director.
[FR Doc. 2022-09320 Filed 4-29-22; 8:45 am]
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