Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 91 / Wednesday, May 13, 2009 / Notices 22557 

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Form Number of respondents 

Responses 

per 

respondent 

Total 

responses 

Hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

Survey of Consumers ....................... 563 ................................................... 1 563 0.5 281.5 

Survey of the Distributors of the 

Consumer Tools.

40 ..................................................... 1 40 0.5 20 

Consumer Focus Groups .................. 4 sites × 16 focus group participants 

per site = 64.

1 64 1.5 96 

Total ........................................... 667 ................................................... 3 667 2.5 397.5 

E-mail comments to 

paperwork@hrsa.gov or mail the HRSA 

Reports Clearance Officer, Room 10–33, 

Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, 

Rockville, MD 20857. Written comments 

should be received within 60 days of 

this notice. 

Dated: May 5, 2009. 

Alexandra Huttinger, 

Director, Division of Policy Review and 

Coordination. 

[FR Doc. E9–11086 Filed 5–12–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4165–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

[60Day–09–0607] 

Proposed Data Collections Submitted 

for Public Comment and 

Recommendations 

In compliance with the requirement 

of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for 

opportunity for public comment on 

proposed data collection projects, the 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic 

summaries of proposed projects. To 

request more information on the 

proposed projects or to obtain a copy of 

the data collection plans and 

instruments, call 404–639–5960 or send 

comments to Maryam I. Daneshvar, CDC 

Acting Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 

Clifton Road, MS–D74, Atlanta, GA 

30333 or send an e-mail to 

omb@cdc.gov. 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. Written comments should 

be received within 60 days of this 

notice. 

Proposed Project 

The National Violent Death Reporting 

System (NVDRS) OMB# 0920–0607— 

Revision—National Center for Injury 

Prevention and Control (NCIPC), 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC). 

Background and Brief Description 

Violence is an important public 

health problem. In the United States, 

homicide and suicide are the second 

and third leading causes of death, 

respectively, in the 1–34 year old age 

group. Unfortunately, public health 

agencies do not know much more about 

the problem than the numbers and the 

sex, race, and age of the victims, all 

information obtainable from the 

standard death certificate. Death 

certificates, however, carry no 

information about key facts necessary 

for prevention such as the relationship 

of the victim and suspect and the 

circumstances of the deaths, thereby 

making it impossible to discern 

anything but the gross contours of the 

problem. Furthermore, death certificates 

are typically available 20 months after 

the completion of a single calendar year. 

Official publications of national violent 

death rates, e.g. those in Morbidity and 

Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use data 

that is less than two years old. Public 

health interventions aimed at a moving 

target last seen two years ago may well 

miss the mark. 

Local and Federal criminal justice 

agencies such as the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more 

information about homicides, but they 

do not routinely collect standardized 

data about suicides, which are in fact 

much more common than homicides. 

The FBI ́s Supplemental Homicide 

Report (SHRs) does collect basic 

information about the victim-suspect 

relationship and circumstances related 

to the homicide. SHRs do not link 

violent deaths that are part of one 

incident such as homicide-suicides. It 

also is a voluntary system in which 

some 10–20 percent of police 

departments nationwide do not 

participate. The FBI ́s National Incident 

Based Reporting System (NIBRS) 

provides slightly more information than 

SHRs, but it covers less of the country 

than SHRs. NIBRS also only provides 

data regarding homicides. Also, the 

Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports does 

not use data that is less than two years 

old. 

CDC therefore proposes to continue a 

state-based surveillance system for 

violent deaths that will provide more 

detailed and timely information. It taps 

into the case records held by medical 

examiners/coroners, police, and crime 

labs. Data is collected centrally by each 

state in the system, stripped of 

identifiers, and then sent to the CDC. 

Information is collected from these 

records about the characteristics of the 

victims and suspects, the circumstances 

of the deaths, and the weapons 

involved. States use standardized data 

elements and software designed by CDC. 

Ultimately, this information will guide 

states in designing programs that reduce 

multiple forms of violence. 

Neither victim families nor suspects 

are contacted to collect this information. 

It all comes from existing records and is 

collected by state health department 

staff or their subcontractors. Health 

departments incur an average of 2.5 

hours per death in identifying the 

deaths from death certificates, 

contacting the police and medical 

examiners to get copies of or to view the 

relevant records, abstracting all the 

records, various data processing tasks, 

various administrative tasks, data 

utilization, training, communications, 

etc. 

This revision is a request to allow 10 

new state health departments to be 

added to the currently funded 17, if 

funding becomes available. This may 

bring the total to 27 by the year 2012. 

22558 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 91 / Wednesday, May 13, 2009 / Notices 

Violent deaths include all homicides, 

suicides, legal interventions, deaths 

from undetermined causes, and 

unintentional firearm deaths. The 

average state will experience 

approximately 1,000 such deaths each 

year. 

There is no cost to respondents to 

participate other than their time. 

ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Respondents Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses/ 

respondent 

Average 

burden/ 

response 

(in hours) 

Total burden 

(in hours) 

State Health Departments ............................................................................... 27 1,000 2.5 67,500 

Dated: May 6, 2009. 

Maryam I. Daneshvar, 

Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention. 

[FR Doc. E9–11128 Filed 5–12–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Proposed Collection; 

Conunent Request 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

intention of the Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request 

that the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) approve the proposed 

information collection project: ‘‘Health 

Literacy Item Set Supplemental to 

CAHPS Hospital Survey—Pretest of 

Proposed Questions and Methodology.’’ 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104– 

13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), AHRQ 

invites the public to comment on this 

proposed information collection. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by July 13, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz, 

Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by email at doris.lefkowit@ahrq.hhs.gov. 

Copies of the proposed collection 

plans, data collection instruments, and 

specific details on the estimated burden 

can be obtained from the AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer, (301) 427–1477, or by 

e-mail at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Project 

‘‘Health Literacy Item Set Supplemental 

to CAHPS Hospital Survey—Pretest of 

Proposed Questions and Methodology’’ 

AHRQ proposes to conduct a pretest 

of the Consumer Assessment of 

Healthcare Providers and Systems 

(CAHPSR) Hospital Survey health 

literacy module. The CAHPS program is 

a multi-year initiative of the Agency for 

Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ 

first launched the program in October 

1995 in response to concerns about the 

lack of good information about the 

quality of health plans from the 

enrollees’ perspective. Numerous public 

and private organizations collected 

information on enrollee and patient 

satisfaction, but the surveys varied from 

sponsor to sponsor and often changed 

from year to year. The CAHPSR program 

was designed to make it possible to 

compare survey results across sponsors 

and over time, and to generate tools and 

resources that sponsors can use to 

produce understandable and usable 

comparative information for consumers. 

Over time, the program has expanded 

beyond its original focus on health 

plans to address a range of health care 

services to meet the various needs of 

health care consumers, purchasers, 

health plans, providers, and 

policymakers. Based on a literature 

review and an assessment of currently 

available questionnaires, AHRQ 

identified the need to develop a health 

literacy module for the CAHPSR 

Hospital Survey. The intent of the 

planned module is to examine patients’ 

perspectives on how well health 

information is communicated to them 

by healthcare professionals in the 

hospital setting. The objective of the 

new module is to provide information to 

health plans, hospitals, clinicians, group 

practices, and other interested parties 

regarding the quality of health 

information delivered to patients. The 

set of questions about health literacy 

will be evaluated as a supplement to the 

CAHPSR Hospital Survey. 

This study will be conducted for 

AHRQ by its contactor, RAND 

Corporation. It is being conducted 

pursuant to AHRQ’s statutory authority 

to conduct research and evaluations on 

health care and systems for the delivery 

of such care, including activities with 

respect to the quality, effectiveness, 

efficiency, appropriateness and value of 

health care services. See 42 U.S.C. 

299a(a)(1). 

This study is a one-time field test to 

be completed in the calendar years 2009 

and 2010. The field test to be conducted 

under this request will be done for the 

following purposes: 

a. Analysis of item wording—Assess 

candidate wordings for items. 

b. Analysis of participation rate— 

Evaluate the overall response rate and 

the proportion of that obtained from 

mail versus telephone modes of data 

collection. 

c. Case mix adjustment analysis— 

Evaluate variables that need to be 

considered for case mix adjustment of 

scores. 

d. Psychometric Analysis—Provide 

information for the revision of the 

health literacy item set based on the 

assessment of the reliability and 

validity. 

The end result will be collection of 

the data related to the assessment of 

patients’ perspective on how well health 

information is communicated to them 

by health care professionals in hospital 

setting. The field testing will ensure that 

future data collections yield high 

quality data and minimize respondent 

burden, increase agency efficiency, and 

improve responsiveness to the public. 

The survey items will be added to 

currently available CAHPS R surveys 

and will enhance the ability of hospitals 

to assess the quality of their services. 

Method of Collection 

The potential respondent universe is 

persons who had at least one overnight 

stay at a hospital within the previous 

five months. Excluded from the study 

will be those who were less than 18 

years old at the time of their admission, 

had a psychiatric diagnosis, were