82 FR 32551 - Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 134 (July 14, 2017)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comments on a proposed information collection project titled ``Assessment of Restaurant Ill Worker Policies.''

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 134 (Friday, July 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32551-32553]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-14791]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-17-17AMO; Docket No. CDC-2017-0054]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 
continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comments on a proposed 
information collection project titled ``Assessment of Restaurant Ill 
Worker Policies.''

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before September 12, 
2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2017-
0054 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

    Please note: All public comment should be submitted through the 
Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the 
address listed above.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection 
Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton 
Road NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. 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

[[Page 32552]]

transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

Proposed Project

    Assessment of Ill Worker Policies Study--NEW--National Center for 
Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is requesting 
a new three-year Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) clearance to conduct 
information collection entitled ``Assessment of Ill Worker Policies 
Study.''
    CDC's National Center for Environmental Health implements the 
Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) program, which 
conducts studies to identify and understand environmental factors 
associated with foodborne illness outbreaks and other food safety 
issues (e.g., ill food workers). These data are essential to 
environmental public health regulators' efforts to respond more 
effectively to and prevent future outbreaks by identifying underlying 
causes and intervention strategies.
    EHS-Net is a collaborative project of the CDC, the U.S. Food and 
Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 
industry partners and eight state and local public health departments 
(California, Minnesota, New York, New York City, Rhode Island, 
Tennessee, Southern Nevada Health District, and Harris County Texas). 
CDC funds these state and local health departments, which enables them 
to collaborate on study design, collect study data, and co-analyze 
study data with CDC. The federal partners also provide funding and 
input into study design and data analysis.
    Ill food service workers have long been identified as a source of 
contamination in restaurants. The 2013 FDA Food Code specifically 
addresses food worker health under section 2-201. However, even with 
these regulations in place food workers continue to serve as a source 
for disease transmission (e.g., Norovirus).
    The FDA Food Code calls for excluding food workers from working in 
the restaurant that are diagnosed with an illness or have symptoms. 
Research has indicated that many food service workers have reported 
working while sick and that the reasons provided are multi-faceted. To 
assist in reducing this national disease burden, it is critical to 
develop and implement successful interventions that address the reasons 
that restaurant workers continue to work while sick. The goals of this 
study include:
    (1) Assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of both 
restaurant managers and workers to working while ill; and
    (2) Assess whether an educational intervention will result in 
restaurants enhancing their ill worker management procedures.
    The data from this study can be used to further develop educational 
materials, trainings, and tools that are targeted towards improving 
retail food establishment ill worker management practices. This 
improvement can contribute to a decrease in the number of food service 
workers that continue to work while ill in retail food establishments 
and a subsequent decrease in the contamination of foodstuffs from the 
ill worker.
    This data collection request aims to address data gap by surveying 
restaurants on their ill worker polices through a quasi-experimental 
non-equivalent group pre- post-test design, with implementation of an 
educational intervention to randomly selected independently-owned 
restaurants in the catchment area. The assessments at each site visit 
will be the same in both the intervention and control restaurants. Data 
collection will consist of a manager interview to understand the 
current practices in the restaurant, a facility observation to observe 
the practices in place to prevent contamination from an employee, and a 
food worker survey to obtain their beliefs towards the current 
policies.
    The educational intervention planned in the study is designed to 
encourage restaurants to develop ill worker management policies that 
have provisions to address the reasons that workers have reported 
working while ill. The efficacy of the intervention will be measured 
using a pre- post-test non-equivalent groups design.
    If the intervention is resulting in having restaurants enhance 
their ill worker management policies; at the follow up visit, the 
intervention will be provided to the control restaurants and an 
additional follow up visit will occur in these restaurants.
    For the purpose of the burden hours, eight sites will collect data 
in 40 restaurants. The total estimated annualized burden hours averaged 
over the three-year study period are 200 burden hours. Participation in 
this proposed information collection is completely voluntary. There is 
no cost to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondents           Form name       respondents    responses per   response  (in    (in hours)
                                                                    respondent        hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Restaurant Managers...........  Manager                      237               1            3/60              12
                                 Recruiting
                                 Script.
Restaurant Managers             Manager Informed              53               1           20/60              18
 (Intervention Restaurants).     Consent and
                                 Interview.
Restaurant Managers             Guide to                      53               1           30/60              27
 (Intervention Restaurants).     Developing a
                                 Restaurant Ill
                                 Worker
                                 Management Plan.
Food Workers (Intervention      Food Worker                  267               1            5/60              22
 Restaurants).                   Informed
                                 Consent and
                                 Survey.
Health Department Workers       Restaurant                    53               1           30/60              27
 (Intervention Restaurants).     Observation
                                 Form.
Restaurant Managers (Control    Manager Informed              53               1           20/60              18
 Restaurants).                   Consent and
                                 Interview.
Restaurant Managers (Control    Guide to                      53               1           30/60              27
 Restaurants).                   Developing a
                                 Restaurant Ill
                                 Worker
                                 Management Plan.
Food Workers (Control           Food Worker                  267               1            5/60              22
 Restaurants).                   Informed
                                 Consent and
                                 Survey.
Health Department Workers       Restaurant                    53               1           30/60              27
 (Control Restaurants).          Observation
                                 Form.
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[[Page 32553]]

 
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............             200
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2017-14791 Filed 7-13-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P