Director Mailing Cover Letter with FAQs

Attachment A-1 - Director mailing-NCHS Cover Letter with FAQs

[NCHS Letterhead]

Date

Name of Director

Name of facility

Address

City, State, Zip

Dear <Name of director>,

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics is conducting a pilot study for a direct care worker (DCW) survey as a supplement to the 2022 National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study (NPALS). You have been selected to participate.

NCHS is exploring the development of a survey to understand the work of DCWs, to evaluate current trends, and to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the direct care workforce. This pilot study of DCWs, which builds upon the NCHS NPALS infrastructure, will allow NCHS to design and test procedures, questionnaires, and contact strategies that could be used in a national DCW survey in the future. By participating you will help to greatly improve the efforts in designing a national study.

Participating in this pilot study will involve a brief phone call to confirm eligibility and set up the sampling appointment, and a subsequent brief phone call to, with the help of a telephone interviewer, select two DCWs using random sampling procedures. In preparation for this sampling call, we will be asking you to prepare a list of current employee and contracted direct care workers as of midnight the night before the call. From the list, we will talk you through some instructions to scientifically select two direct care workers at your facility. Once the two sampled direct care workers are identified, we will ask you for their contact information. We will be sending the sampled DCWs a questionnaire to complete by mail or web. We ask for approximately 20 minutes of your time to participate.

Your participation in this survey is voluntary, but will assist greatly in helping to further efforts to study DCWs and the important jobs they do. Refusal to participate will involve no loss of benefits and participation can be discontinued at any time. You do not have to answer any question you don’t want to. Enclosed is a letter of approval from the Ethics Review Board at the National Center for Health Statistics. If you have questions about your rights as a participant in this research study, call the Ethics Review Board toll-free at 1-800-223-8118 and leave a message stating you are calling about Protocol #2023-XX. Your call will be returned as soon as possible.

We take your privacy very seriously. Everything you tell us is confidential. The information you give us is ONLY used for statistical purposes. See reverse for more information. Enclosed is an NCHS confidentiality brochure. If you have any questions about confidentiality, call NCHS’ Confidentiality Officer at (888) 642-4159.

On the back of this letter are Frequently Asked Questions. To learn more about this study, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/npals/index.htm or call an NPALS representative at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Thank you, in advance, for your help with this important study.

Sincerely,

Brian C. Moyer, PhD

Director, National Center for Health Statistics

Direct Care Worker (DCW) Pilot Study

Director Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why should I participate in this pilot study?

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recognizes that DCWs are an important component of the long-term care sector in the United States. When you participate in this pilot study, you help ensure that in the future DCW surveys will be up-to-date and more accurately portray your industry to health care planners and policymakers.

Should I participate if I participated in NPALS?

Yes. Your participation in this pilot study is important and separate from your NPALS participation.

Who else is being contacted to participate in this pilot study?

The pilot study includes directors and DCWs in residential care communities, adult day services centers, and nursing homes. To protect their privacy we do not release participants’ names to anyone.

Why can’t someone else take our place?

Your facility and your DCWs represent others like you. If you do not participate in this pilot study, there is no guarantee that facilities and the DCWs like yours will be represented adequately, and the representation of your facility and DCW’s unique qualities may be lost.

Where did you get my name?

You were selected because you either completed the 2022 NPALS survey or you were included in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data used in NPALS.

Will the results be made public?

Yes. The results from this methodologic pilot survey will focus on lessons learned from the survey and will be made public via NCHS reports and presentations. A restricted-use data file will also be made available via the NCHS Research Data Center if requested. While results from this survey will be made publicly available, all data will be kept strictly confidential and aggregated, so that the names and individual information about facilities and DCWs will not be identifiable.

Who will see my information?

We take your privacy very seriously. All information that relates to or describes identifiable characteristics of individuals, a practice, or an establishment will be used only for statistical purposes. NCHS staff, contractors, and agents will not disclose or release responses in identifiable form without the consent of the individual or establishment in accordance with section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242m(d)) and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (44 U.S.C. 3561-3583). In accordance with CIPSEA, every NCHS employee, contractor, and agent has taken an oath and is subject to a jail term of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both if he or she willfully discloses ANY identifiable information about you. In addition to the above cited laws, NCHS complies with the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §§ 151 and 151 note) which protects Federal information systems from cybersecurity risks by screening their networks.