Supporting Statement

Health Resources and Services Administration

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Put your Project Title here

A. Justification

1. Circumstances of Information Collection

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) currently has approval under the generic clearance, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 0915-0212, to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups. This collection of information helps fulfill the requirements of:

1. Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” which directs Agencies to continually reform their management practices and operations to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.

This is a request for OMB approval of a qualitative voluntary customer satisfaction survey or focus group under HRSA’s generic clearance. HRSA’s Office of Epidemiology and Research seeks to obtain one-year follow-up information from trainees of its annual Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Epidemiology Training Course. Through a combination of webinars, in-person lectures, group exercises, and individual TA, this course is designed to increase state/local analyst skill in key MCH epidemiology topics (e.g. data analysis and translation, needs assessment, program evaluation, performance measurement) that are used to inform and improve state and local Title V MCH block grant programmatic efforts.

Executive Order 12862 directs agencies that "provide significant services directly to the public" to "survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services". The objectives of the one-year follow-up trainee survey are to monitor retention in state/local epidemiology positions, to determine utilization and satisfaction of individual TA, and to quantify the extent of skill application to job projects as well as any barriers to applying the skills acquired during training.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information

The information resulting from the trainee survey will be used to evaluate the impact of this training investment and opportunities for improvement. HRSA will only use survey results for internal program improvement of the training course.

All trainees (~40 per year) will be contacted via e-mail to complete the on-line survey approximately one year from the in-person training. A copy of the survey instrument, to be administered by the grantee, is attached.

The survey results will provide important information on the application of training course material and potential barriers to application. The survey information will be included in an annual internal evaluation report used for continuous quality improvement.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology

The survey will be administered and submitted electronically via SurveyMonkey to e-mail addresses of the prior year’s trainees. This mode of data collection will reduce burden over a mailed or telephone survey and will easily accommodate the 5-question instrument.

4. Efforts to Avoid Duplication

The proposed survey is unique to this training course. There are no alternative sources of information on the applied impact of the course and trainee satisfaction with faculty TA.

5. Involvement of Small Entities

No small businesses will be involved in this survey.

6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently

Trainees from the prior year’s course will be contacted approximately one year from the in-person training. The survey will be issued annually but with a different trainee cohort every year.

7. Consistency With the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)

These surveys will be implemented in a manner fully consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Consultation Outside the Agency

In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), on April 24, 2009, a 30 day notice was published in the Federal Register for HRSA’s generic clearance, OMB Control No. 0915-0212 (Vol. 74, Page 18726). No public comments were received.

9. Remuneration of Respondents

Not applicable.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

To date, the HRSA customer satisfaction surveys have not collected personally identifiable information from respondents. This collection will involve names and e-mail addresses to administer the survey. However, participation is fully voluntary and data will be summarized anonymously and stripped of any identifiers.

11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature

The survey does not contain questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden

Respondents

Respondents will include all trainees (~40 per year) from the annual MCH Epidemiology Training Course.

Annual burden estimates

The total annual respondent burden for the survey is estimated to be 10 hours. We expect ~40 trainees to complete the 5-question on-line survey in about 15 minutes each. With an average hourly wage of $35 for epidemiologists, this represents a total hour cost of $350. Average hourly wage source: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#19-0000

Type of Collection	Number of Respondents	Responses per Respondent	Total Responses	Hours per Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Wage Rate	Total Hour Cost
One-year trainee survey	40	1	40	.25	10	$35/hr	$350
Total	40	1	40	.25	10	$35/hr	$350

Planned frequency of information collection:

Annually with different respondents (prior year’s trainees).

13. Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents

The only associated cost to respondents is their time to provide the requested information.

14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government

The survey will be administered and analyzed by the grantee within their current scope of work already funded. It will cost the grantee an estimated 16 hours of an FTE earning $31/hr to implement, compile, and summarize the results. The project officer involved in oversight will spend an hour consulting and reviewing the data summary (GS-14 Step 3, $54/hr). The total estimated annualized cost to the government is $550.

15. Change in Burden

Not Applicable. This is a new activity under HRSA’s generic clearance and will be included in the total burden currently approved by OMB under OMB Control No. 0915-0212.

16. Plans for Analysis and Timetable of Key Activities

Upon approval, the survey will be administered to the 2013 class of trainees electronically with an expectation of completion within 2 weeks. The grantee will summarize information from the survey using descriptive analysis. Findings will only be used for internal service improvement and will not be generalized to the public. There are no plans for publication of any survey results.

17. Exemption for Display of Expiration Date

No exemption is being requested. The expiration date will be displayed.

18. Certifications

This information collection activity will comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

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