Justification

NATIONAL HOSPITAL DISCHARGE SURVEY

Change to request not displaying the OMB expiration date on the 2008 and 2009 survey forms

OMB No.0920-0212

(Expires 8/31/2008)

February 7, 2008

Contact Information:

Carol DeFrances, Ph.D.

Survey Statistician

Ambulatory and Hospital Care Statistics Branch

Division of Health Care Statistics

National Center for Health Statistics

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

3311 Toledo Road, Mailroom 3409

Hyattsville, Maryland 20782

Phone: 301-458-4440

Email: [email protected]

This request is for a non-substantive change to the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) (OMB No. 0920-0212, expires 08/31/08). The NHDS, which has been conducted continuously since 1965, is the principal source of nationally representative data on the characteristics of patients discharged from nonfederal, short-stay hospitals. The NHDS is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

NCHS is seeking approval to not display the OMB expiration date on the 2008 and 2009 NHDS forms.

1. 17. Reason Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate.

The NHDS is an ongoing survey and no changes to the forms are anticipated for the 2008 or 2009 data collections. After the 2009 data collection, a redesigned NHDS survey will be fielded using a computer based technology to collect the information. Not displaying the expiration date on the 2008 and 2009 forms would avoid the considerable cost of reprinting forms in the middle of a survey year. We need to begin the data collection for 2008 in May, but we do not anticipate obtaining OMB clearance for the continuation of the survey until August 2008. Therefore, in order to prevent having to the print the forms twice, one set with the August 2008 expiration date and another set with the August 2011 date, we are requesting approval to print the forms with no date.

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