Supporting Statement B

CDC Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratories Customer Satisfaction Survey

OSTLTS Generic Information Collection Request

OMB No. 0920-0879

Supporting Statement – Section B

Submitted: January 27, 2012

Program Official/Project Officer

Name: Roberta B. Carey, Ph.D.

Title: Interim CLIA Laboratory Director, CDC Atlanta

Organization: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Address: 1600 Clifton Road, MS C-12

Phone number: 404-639-7328

Fax Number: 404-639-3359

Email: [email protected]

Section B – Data Collection Procedures

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The target audience to respond to the survey is the State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors, who have oversight for all facets of the diagnostic samples sent to CDC for further identification, typing and/or susceptibility testing. The U.S. Public Health Laboratory Directors will be sent an email inviting them, or their designee, to reply to the survey with a link to the questions that are posted on Survey Monkey (Attachment D). In the introductory email letter, the importance of their response will be described, and how the data collected will form the agenda for continuous process improvement for CDC’s Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratories. All 55 State, Territorial, and District of Columbia Public Health Directors will be sampled.

Table B-1: Potential Respondent Universe

Entity	Potential Respondent	N
State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory	Public Health Laboratory Director or their designee	55
Total Universe of Potential Respondents		55

2. Procedures for Collecting of Information

The information will be collected using the Survey Monkey website. The link to the survey will be emailed to the 55 Laboratory Directors who serve the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Virgin Islands. In addition, an article describing the purpose and importance of this survey will be published in the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) weekly e-Update, which is widely read by APHL members (Attachment E). One email reminder will be sent to those who have not responded one week after the due date. (Attachment F).

Answers to the 6 checkbox questions, which deal with rating CDC’s infectious diseases laboratories’ performance, will be captured in an excel database. The percent of labs rating each service from “very poor” to “very good” will be calculated. The answers to the 3 open-ended questions will be listed in an excel database and categorized according to topic areas addressed. The most frequent responses will be highlighted for the report.

3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates

One email reminder will be sent to each non-responder. The response for this survey can be maximized through the support of the Association of Public Health Laboratories that communicates with the state public health labs on a regular basis and is very supportive of this effort. A general notice will be published in the APHL weekly e-Update reminding laboratories to complete their survey (Attachment G). The APHL weekly e-Update article will not cite individual laboratory directors who have not submitted their survey; it will be directed to the membership at large.

4. Test of Procedures

This survey was originally developed by the 8 CDC representatives to the CLIA Subcommittee. There was representation from each of the infectious diseases centers (NCIRD, NCHHSTP, NCEZID, CGH) and the birth defects developmental disabilities laboratory (NCBDDD). The questions were further refined by review with the four center infectious diseases Associate Directors for Laboratory Science (ADLS) and the Senior Advisor for Laboratory Science in the Office of Infectious Diseases (OID). The survey was then piloted with one representative of the public health laboratories, and further changes made. Finally, four members of the CDC Laboratory Quality Management Program were asked to complete the survey and record time required. The minimum time to complete the survey was 4 minutes, the maximum time was 8 minutes, and median time was 5 minutes.

Format of the questions was taken from previous OMB –approved surveys. In the initial discussions with the Association of Public Health Laboratories it was agreed that no more than 10 questions would be asked. The survey should allow for short checkbox answers that would grade current CDC services and allow for tracking of progress. The survey should contain a few open-ended questions to permit the public health laboratories to comment on areas needed for improvement that are not captured in the obvious categories listed in the checkbox list. This is the first time a survey has been administered on this topic, and it is purposely designed to capture data on broad categories reflecting services provided by the CDC reference laboratories.

5. Contact for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

Data collected in this short survey does not require statistical analysis. The person who will be charged with validating and analyzing the data is a member of our Laboratory Quality Management Program: Ms. Angela Thompson, Health Scientist, NCEZID/OD, [email protected], 404-639-2319. The survey was designed in Survey Monkey by Ron Alford, Health Scientist, NCEZID/OD, [email protected], 404-639-2656. The principle investigator for the project is the Interim CDC CLIA Director and Director of the Laboratory Quality Management Program (LQMP): Roberta B. Carey, Ph.D., Senior Service Fellow, NCEZID/OD, [email protected], 404-639-7328.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS – Section B (refer to file labeled OMB Attachments for Section B-R. Carey)

Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.

Attachment D - Email letter of invitation to respond to the survey

Attachment E - Short article in APHL eUpdate

Attachment F - Email reminder to non-responders

Attachment G - Reminder for those who have not responded in the APHL eUpdate