[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 94 (Tuesday, May 15, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28597-28598]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11705]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-12-12AL]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Send written comments 
to CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC or 
by fax to (202) 395-5806. Written comments should be received within 30 
days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    The Ambulatory Care Pretest: National Hospital Care Survey--New--
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Section 306 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act (42 U.S.C. 
242k), as amended, authorizes that the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services (DHHS), acting through NCHS, shall collect statistics on the 
extent and nature of illness and disability of the population of the 
United States. This one-year clearance request seeks approval to pre-
test: (1) Data collection from hospital ambulatory departments 
including emergency departments (ED), outpatient departments (OPD), and 
ambulatory surgery locations (ASLs) through the National Hospital Care 
Survey (NHCS) (OMB No. 0920-0212, expiration date 04/30/2014); (2) new 
questions on drug-related ED visits; and (3) new questions on 
colorectal cancer screening in ambulatory surgery visits.
    In 2012, a pretest of 32 hospitals and 15 freestanding ambulatory 
surgery centers (FSASC) will collect data using methods approved for 
the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) (OMB No. 
0920-

[[Page 28598]]

0278, expiration date 12/31/2014) data collection. The proposed pretest 
will test the data collection procedures involved in integrating the 
NHAMCS into the NHCS. NHAMCS has provided data annually since 1992 
concerning the nation's use of hospital emergency and outpatient 
departments, and since 2009, on hospital-based ASLs and since 2010, on 
FSASCs. If the pretest is successful, NHAMCS will be integrated into 
NHCS in order to increase the wealth of data on health care utilization 
in hospitals across episodes of care and to allow for linkages to other 
data sources such as the National Death Index and data from the Centers 
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
    The data items to be collected from the recruited hospitals and 
FSASCs in the pretest will include facility level data items such as 
visit volume, ownership, and information on electronic health record 
systems. Facility- and ambulatory unit-level data will be collected 
through in-person interviews and recorded on computerized survey 
instruments. It is anticipated that each hospital will have 
approximately four ambulatory units and each FSASC will have one 
ambulatory unit.
    Patient level data items will include basic demographic 
information, name, address, social security number (if available), and 
medical record number (if available), and characteristics of the 
patients including visit dates, reason for visit, diagnoses, diagnostic 
services, procedures, medications, providers seen, and disposition. 
Patient visit data will be abstracted by field representatives of the 
data collection agent. A targeted number of patient visits will be 
sampled from each department depending on the type of department--
approximately 200 across ambulatory units in the ED, 200 across 
ambulatory units in the OPD, and 100 across ambulatory units in ASLs.
    Secondly, the pretest will collect specific information on drug-
related visits to the ED. This endeavor, funded by the Center for 
Behavioral Health Statistics & Quality (CBHSQ) of the Substance Abuse & 
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will assess the 
feasibility of integrating the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) (OMB 
No. 0930-0078, expired 12/31/2011) into the emergency department 
component of the NHCS. In each of the 32 pretest hospitals with an 
emergency department, a sample of all patient visits will be 
abstracted; for each drug-related visit within this sample, additional 
drug-related data will be abstracted. The only burden to the respondent 
at the patient visit level will be due to pulling and refiling 
approximately 104 medical records at each ambulatory unit.
    Finally, the pretest will assess the feasibility of obtaining 
information on colorectal cancer screening during ambulatory surgery 
visits where a colonoscopy is performed. This endeavor is sponsored 
jointly by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and 
Promotion (NCCDPHP) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The 
questions will be added to the Ambulatory Surgery Patient Record form 
and will be completed for patients who have a colonoscopy performed at 
the sampled visit. Potential users of the NHCS ambulatory data include, 
but are not limited to CDC, Congressional Research Service, Office of 
the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), American 
Health Care Association, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 
(CMS), Bureau of the Census, state and local governments, and nonprofit 
organizations. There is no cost to respondents other than their time to 
participate. The total burden is 381 hours.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                                      Average
                                                                   Number of     Responses  per     burden  per
       Type of respondent                   Form name             respondents      respondent      response  (in
                                                                                                      hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospital Chief Executive Officer  Hospital Induction Interview              32                 1             1.5
FSASC Chief Executive Officer...  FSASC Induction Interview...              15                 1           30/60
Medical and Health Services       Ambulatory Unit Induction...             140                 1           15/60
 Manager.
IT Staff........................  Prepare and transmit UB-04..              47                 1               1
Medical Record Clerk............  Pulling and refiling records             140               104            1/60
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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. 2012-11705 Filed 5-14-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P