Memo Regarding Revisions

	Department of Veterans Affairs		Memorandum
Date:		December 19, 2013
From:		VHA PRA Compliance Liaison (10B4)
Subject:		2900-0712, Nation-wide Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients (SHEP)
To:		OMB Desk Officer, Bridget Dooling
Cc:		VA Clearance Officer, Crystal Rennie (OI&T- 005R1B)

Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Clinical Analytics and Reporting (OCAR) has worked with the VA OMB Desk Officer (Dooling) in the past 9 months in an effort to revise the SHEP data collection. Although the prior data collection expired in March 31, 2014, a revision request was submitted January 2012. OMB has held two teleconferences this year in an attempt to work with VHA in support of their national surveying efforts.

The initial conference call was held on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 2:00 PM-2:45pm. On June 4, 2013, the ICR was “Withdrawn and continued” in ROCIS, to upload revised versions of the instruments and supporting statements. The follow-up conference call was held Wednesday, August 28, 2013 2:00 PM-3:00pm

As a result of the August 28^th call, it was acknowledged that several forms removed from the data collection request would be disseminated in the near future. OMB determined that those forms should be re-introduced in the ICR and calculated for an accurate respondent total and burden hour estimate. The Program Office was working on revising the justification and forms, thus, the ICR was opened for amendment in ROCIS November 25, 2013. The former VHA PRA Liaison assisted the OCAR Director of Survey’s (Schaefer) with his collection request by reviewing the package before submission. Several errors were discovered in the justification resulting in an inaccurate burden hour and duplicate form numbers listed.

The ICR package was returned to the Program Office for immediate adjustments. However, it is assumed that due to time constraints on an open amendment, OMB closed the amendment, just before the Program Office was able to submit the complete ICR package on December 6^th. Although VA did not inform OMB that VHA’s ICR was ready, nor uploaded, OMB cleared the data collection request on December 13, 2013, without the revised justification and additional forms.

The 2900-0712 data collection is being resubmitted reflecting updates and 4 additional forms, including those previously removed during the planning stages.