Hospital Invitation

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Department of Public Health

Registry of Vital Records and Statistics

150 Mt. Vernon Street, 1^st Floor

Dorchester, MA 02125

Attachment A1a. Hospital Intro Invitation

MARYLOU SUDDERS

Secretary

MONICA BHAREL, MD, MPH Commissioner

Tel: 617-740-2600

www.mass.gov/dph/rvrs

CHARLES D. BAKER

Governor

KARYN E. POLITO

Lieutenant Governor

XXXX XX, 2018

Dear Managers and/or Directors of HIM Operations, Labor and Delivery, Maternity, and Post-Partum and Nursery:

On behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) thank you for agreeing to participate in the study, “Assessing the Effectiveness of eLearning to Improve Birth Data Quality,” conducted by 2M Research Services, LLC (2M). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the online eLearning course entitled “Applying Best Practices for Reporting Medical and Health Information on Birth Certificates,” which was developed to improve the quality of medical and health data collected on birth certificates. Such improvements will enhance surveillance and research on maternal and infant health in the United States and will contribute to better social and healthcare services.

NCHS has commissioned this study to assess

• response to the eLearning course in terms of acceptability, convenience, and accessibility; and

• changes in knowledge, awareness, thoughts, and perceptions about the importance of birth certificate data and changes in understanding of best practices for reporting these data.

NCHS contracted with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health/Registry of Vital Records (Massachusetts DPH/VR) to identify and recruit hospitals for this study. Your hospital is one of nine selected hospitals in Massachusetts that have agreed to participate. For hospitals, participation consists of providing a list of staff involved in the collecting and/or reporting of birth certificate data (i.e., birth registrars, managers of birth registrars, labor and delivery nurses [including nurse/midwives], obstetricians and gynecologists) so that they may be contacted by 2M and invited to participate in this study. Only a sample of staff will be invited to participate

The study consists of three steps: an Online Baseline Survey, the NCHS online eLearning course, and an Online Follow-Up Survey. Participation in all three steps should take approximately 2 hours over a period of up to 1 month. We ask that you allow your staff to complete this study during work hours whenever possible.

From the online eLearning course, your staff should gain a better understanding of the birth certificate data collection process, their role in the process, and best practices for collecting and/or documenting the information, which will improve your hospital’s birth data quality. Participation in the surveys may not be of direct benefit to your staff, however, the information they provide will help improve future versions of the eLearning course and other birth certificate training materials, which may make their (and your) jobs easier and help improve the quality of birth data in the coming years. There are no foreseeable risks associated with this study.

You have previously agreed that your hospital would participate is this study; however, your continued participation is voluntary. Additionally, your staff’s help in this study is voluntary. Staff may stop the surveys at any time.

By Federal law, the information you provide is confidential and we will take all possible steps to protect the privacy of your staff (please see the attached FAQ for details). Personally identifying information (name, email address) will not be released to anyone outside of NCHS and the 2M research team. Massachusetts DPH/VR and your hospital will not be informed of which members of your staff participate. Only summarized results from the surveys will be provided to Massachusetts DPH/VR. That is, results from the nine participating hospitals will be combined so that individual respondents and hospitals cannot be identified and no record-level data will be shared. If interested, you may request these summarized results from the Massachusetts DPH/VR. Individual hospitals will not be identified in any published reports on the study findings and information will not be provided to you.

If you agree to your hospital’s continued participation in this study, please provide names, email addresses, and job title of staff involved in the birth data collection process. Please also notify all such staff about the study and encourage their participation.

Please print your list of staff and send, via FedEx, to:

Molly Matthews-Ewald, PhD, MS

2M Research Services, LLC

1521 N. Cooper Street, Suite 600

Arlington, Texas 76011

Phone: 469-453-0888

Once 2M receives the list of your staff, someone from 2M will send an email to each of the listed staff members to invite them for participation in the study.

You may have questions about your staff’s rights as a participant in this research study. If so, please call the office of the Research Ethics Review Board at NCHS, toll-free, at 1-800-223-8118. Please leave a brief message with your name and phone number. Say that you are calling about Study Number XXX. Your call will be returned as soon as possible.

If you have questions about the study, please contact NCHS by emailing births@cdc.gov.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important study.

Sincerely,

Sharon Pagnano, Director of Statistics Unit Maria Vu, Birth Data Coordinator

617-740-2623 617-740-2681

sharon.pagnano@state.ma.us maria.vu@state.ma.us