Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Healthy Start Evaluation and Quality Improvement

AGENCY:

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA has submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. Comments submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public during the review and approval period.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than October 13, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, including the Information Collection Request Title, to the desk officer for HRSA, either by email to OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202-395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at paperwork@hrsa.gov or call (301) 443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Information Collection Request Title: Healthy Start Evaluation and Quality Improvement OMB No. 0915-0338—Revision

Abstract: The National Healthy Start Program, funded through HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has the goal of reducing disparities in infant mortality and adverse perinatal outcomes. The program began as a demonstration project with 15 grantees in 1991 and has expanded over the past 2 decades to 100 grantees across 37 states and Washington, DC. Healthy Start grantees operate in communities with rates of infant mortality at least 1.5 times the U.S. national average and high rates for other adverse perinatal outcomes. These communities are geographically, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse low-income areas. Healthy Start covers services during the perinatal period (before, during, after pregnancy) and follows the woman and infant through 2 years after the end of the pregnancy. The Healthy Start program has five approaches including: (1) Improving women's health; (2) promoting quality services; (3) strengthening family resilience; (4) achieving collective impact; and (5) increasing accountability through quality assurance, performance monitoring, and evaluation.

MCHB seeks to implement a uniform set of data elements for monitoring and conducting a mixed-methods evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the program on individual, organizational, and community-level outcomes. Data collection instruments will include a National Healthy Start Program Survey; Community Action Network Survey; Healthy Start Site Visit Protocol; Healthy Start Participant Focus Group Protocol—these instruments have not been changed. The Preconception, Pregnancy and Parenting (3Ps) Information Form will also be used as a data collection instrument; however the 3Ps Information Form has been redesigned from one form into six forms. The six forms include: (1) Demographic Intake Form; (2) Pregnancy Status/History; (3) Preconception; (4) Prenatal; (5) Postpartum; and (6) Interconception/Parenting. The purpose of this redesign is to enhance the 3Ps Information Form to ensure collected data is meaningful for monitoring and evaluation, as well as screening and care coordination, and streamline previously separate data systems. The 3Ps Information Form was also redesigned to allow questions to be administered in accordance with the participant's enrollment/service delivery status and perinatal period. In addition to redesigning the 3Ps Information Form, HRSA deleted questions that are neither critical for evaluation nor programmatic purposes. HRSA also added questions to the 3Ps Information Form to allow the Form to be used as an all-inclusive data collection instrument for MCHB and Healthy Start grantees. The additional questions extend and refine previously approved content, allowing for the collection of more granular and/or in-depth information on existing topics. Adding these questions allows Healthy Start grantees to better assess risk, identify needed services, provide appropriate follow-up activities to program participants, and improve overall service delivery and quality.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The purpose of the data collection instruments is to obtain consistent information across all grantees about Healthy Start and its outcomes. The data will be used to: (1) Conduct ongoing performance monitoring of the program; (2) provide credible and rigorous evidence of program effect on outcomes; (3) assess the relative contribution of the five program approaches to individual and community-level outcomes; (4) meet program needs for accountability, programmatic decision-making, and ongoing quality assurance; and (5) strengthen the evidence-base, and identify best and promising practices for the program to support sustainability, replication, and dissemination of the program.

Likely Respondents: Respondents include project directors and staff for the National Healthy Start Program Survey; representatives from partner organizations for the Community Action Network Survey; program staff, providers, and partners for the Healthy Start Site Visit Protocol; and program participants for the Healthy Start Participant Focus Group Protocol. Respondents for the redesigned 3Ps Information Form (i.e., (1) Demographic Intake; (2) Pregnancy Status/History; (3) Preconception; (4) Prenatal; (5) Postpartum; and (6) Interconception/Parenting) are pregnant women and women of reproductive age who are served by the Healthy Start Program.

Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide the information requested. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information; to search data sources; to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for this ICR are summarized in the table below.