Introductory email

Attachment B

Introductory E-mail

Date

[Subject matter expert Name]

Title

Organization

Street Address

City, State, Zip code

Dear [Subject matter expert Name]:

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is seeking to expand the coverage of the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP) to include more types of service providers. The NSLTCP is one of the country’s main sources of statistics about long-term care providers and service users. The NSLTCP currently collects information on nursing homes, home health agencies, some types of residential care facilities, and hospices and adult day service providers, but does not include many other providers of long-term care. Further information about the NSLTCP is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsltcp.htm.

NCHS has contracted with RTI International, a nonprofit research organization, to conduct a project exploring the types of providers that could be added to the NSLTCP. As part of this project, RTI is conducting interviews with experts who are knowledgeable about the providers of long-term care services for individuals with a broad range of disabilities and about sources of data on these providers.

We would like to interview you for this project. Interviews will be conducted by telephone and will take about 1 hour to complete. If you agree to participate in an interview, RTI will schedule a time that is convenient for you, and two representatives from RTI will call you to conduct the interview. With your permission, RTI will audio-record the conversation to most accurately and comprehensively capture the content of the discussion. RTI will summarize the information gathered from the interviews into a final report for internal NCHS use only. The information you provide will be held confidential. Information which would identify you or link you with your responses will only be used by NCHS staff and contractors for the purposes of this project, and will not be disclosed to anyone else. All documentation generated as a result of the interviews, such as electronic notes and audio recordings, will be transferred securely to NCHS for storage and safekeeping.

If you are willing to participate in the project, please reply to XXXX at [email protected], or call XXX-XXX-XXXX, indicating your willingness. Please also provide an e-mail address or telephone number at which you or your assistant can be contacted to schedule the interview. We appreciate your taking time out of your busy schedule to participate.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Charles Rothwell

Director, National Center for Health Statistics

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