Final answer:
Routine data collection at hospitals may not require prior IRB approval because it may be for quality assessment or marketing purposes and not considered valuable or experimental in nature.
Step-by-step explanation:
Prior Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval may not be required for routine data collection at hospitals for several reasons. One possible reason is that the data collection is solely for quality assessment purposes. In this case, the hospital may be collecting data to monitor and improve the quality of patient care and treatment outcomes. Another reason could be that the data collection is for marketing purposes, such as gathering demographic information about customers. In such instances, the data collected is not considered valuable or experimental in nature.