Justification for FRCP Surveys

Request for Approval

Veterans Health Administration’s Survey of Satisfaction with the Federal Recovery Care Coordination Program

1. Name, facility and phone number of a point of contact that can best answer questions regarding the content and design of the submission:

Karen Guice, MD, MPP

Executive Director, FRCP

202-461-4839

2. Proposed initial distribution date of the data collection:

March 1, 2009

3. Brief summary of the objectives, how the survey results will be used, and for what purpose.

The Federal Recovery Coordination Program (FRCP) is a joint initiative of the Departments of Defense (DoD) and VA. The program was established in January 2008 to provide integrated care and services coordination for recovering service members (RSM), veterans, and their families through recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration. A key part of the program is the development of a recovery plan for each enrollee. The plan, created by the Federal Recovery Coordinator (FRC) with input from the RSM or veteran, family members, and the multidisciplinary care team, identifies the needs, resources, services and benefits required to reach the identified goals.

The FRCP requests clearance to conduct a satisfaction survey of veterans enrolled in the program and their primary caregivers. The objectives of the survey are to assess awareness of the FRC program; measure the overall satisfaction with and effectiveness of the program, the FRC and the recovery plan; identify the specific reasons for which a veteran or caregiver seeks assistance from the FRC; and identify the ways in which veterans’ and caregivers’ interact with the FRC.

The survey results will be used to provide measures for evaluating customer service. They will also be used to improve communications and identify common problem areas. The results should also identify areas were additional information from VA would help assist veteran and caregiver decisions.

4. The number of people asked to answer a survey or participate in a focus group, the number of times they will be asked to respond, and an estimate of the number of individuals who will actually respond.

FRCP enrollees include active duty service members (all branches and components) and veterans. Both populations will be surveyed using the same satisfaction survey, as indicated on the survey tool. Clearance for the active duty satisfaction survey will be obtained through the Department of Defense, Defense Manpower Data Center.

The total number of FRCP enrollees varies, as does their military status. At the time of this request, 157 individuals are enrolled in the FRCP. Of those, 125 are active duty, 11 have been medically separated, 17 are retired, 3 are on PDRL and 1 is on TDRL. If the survey were conducted today, 32 individuals would fall into the “veteran” status and would be contacted. Given that many of the individuals currently enrolled are in the MED/PEB process and the anticipated growth of the program, we estimate that a maximum of 200 veterans could be surveyed in March 2009. Based on this estimate, 200 primary caregivers would also be surveyed. We anticipate that 60% of each group (120 for each group or 240 individuals) will answer the planned telephone administered survey. The estimated time to conduct the survey and the annual burden hours are listed below.

Data Collection Activity	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Estimated Response Time	Estimated Annual Burden Hours
Veteran Survey	200	1	15 minutes (0.25 hours)	50 hours
Primary Caregiver Survey	200	1	15 minutes (0.25 hours)	50 hours
TOTAL				100 hours

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