2011-27583. 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 requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. To request a copy of these requirements, call the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at [phone] or send an e-mail to [e-mail]. Send written comments to CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC or by fax to [phone]. Written comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey [OMB No. 0920-0278]exp.08/31/2012—Revision—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 “utilization of health care” in the United States. The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) has been conducted annually since 1992. The purpose of NHAMCS is to meet the needs and demands for statistical information about the provision of ambulatory medical care services in the United States. Ambulatory services are rendered in a wide variety of settings, including physicians' offices and hospital outpatient and emergency departments, and ambulatory surgery centers.

The target universe of the NHAMCS is in-person visits made to outpatient departments (OPDs), emergency departments (EDs), and ambulatory surgery locations (ASLs) of non-Federal, short-stay hospitals (hospitals with an average length of stay of less than 30 days) or those whose specialty is general (medical or surgical) or children's general, as well as visits to freestanding ambulatory surgery centers (FS-ASCs).

The objectives of this revision are to convert data collection instruments from paper to computer-based instruments; add 167 hospitals to the NHAMCS sample to make state-based estimates in five states on emergency department characteristics; expand the data collection to include a lookback module; conduct a colonoscopy supplement pretest; and make slight modifications to survey questions.

Users of NHAMCS data include, but are not limited to, congressional offices, Federal agencies, state and local governments, schools of public health, colleges and universities, private industry, nonprofit foundations, professional associations, clinicians, researchers, administrators, and health planners. There are no costs to the respondents other than their time. The total estimated annualized burden hours are 10,348.

Estimated Annualized Burden Table

Type of respondent	Form name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden per response (in hours)
Hospital Chief Executive Officer	Hospital Induction	482	1	1.5
Hospital Chief Executive Officer	Hospital Induction (new sample)	167	1	30/60
Ancillary Service Executive	Freestanding ASC Induction	200	1	30/60
Ancillary Service Executive	Ambulatory Unit Induction	1,946	1	15/60
Physician/Registered Nurse/ Medical Record Clerk	ED Patient Record form	154	100	7/60
Physician/Registered Nurse/ Medical Record Clerk	OPD Patient Record form	78	200	14/60
Physician/Registered Nurse/ Medical Record Clerk	AS Patient Record Form	108	100	7/60
Medical Record Clerk	Pulling and re-filing Patient Records (ED, OPD, and AS)	1,018	133	1/60

Dated: October 18, 2011.

Daniel Holcomb,

Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.