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| The Latest From OVERS |
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Since our last newsletter, we have been very busy testing the Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS) software and working with our vendor on the revisions that are necessary before we can begin full pilot testing and statewide rollout. We have also been evaluating and revising how we process electronic death registrations in our office.
First, the good news. As we reported in the last issue, the registration portion of the software is generally working well, although we do have some minor issues to correct that affect our internal processing. Our staff continue to enter 2006 death certificates into the EDRS software and we now have more than 3,100 death registrations in the system. The next software update will include a fast data entry screen that will allow our office to process death registrations significantly quicker and our staff are very excited to receive this.
We are, however, still working with our vendor on developing the portion of the software that issues certified copies and processes death certificate amendments. Because more revisions are still necessary, we have further delayed pilot testing and statewide rollout. We will receive the next software update in late-June which should have everything ready for testing to begin. After an intensive internal testing period, we will decide whether to proceed with that version of the software on July 14th. Pilot counties will receive refresher training and go live with the system in early-August. We will then begin statewide rollout in mid-September and continue through summer 2007.
We are committed to giving you a quality product and will take the time necessary to do this. Although delays can be frustrating – for you and for us – we’d rather have a functional system that’s later than originally planned, than a system that’s on schedule but only partially meets your business needs.
We will keep you informed about the rollout schedule in this newsletter and on our website.
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| NAPHSIS Annual Meeting |
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One of our primary external partners is the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems, commonly known as NAPHSIS. NAPHSIS provides national leadership in high quality public health information systems, including vital records registration, and Oregon is an active participant in the group. NAPHSIS, in cooperation with the National Center for Health Statistics and the Social Security Administration, also developed the national standards for electronic death registration systems, which are being used by Oregon in implementing our EDRS.
NAPHSIS invited Oregon to demonstrate our EDRS software at their annual meeting in San Diego from June 4th through 8th and we are very happy to accept. Several CHS managers and staff will be attending this meeting and Susan Landry, our EDRS Training Coordinator, will be demonstrating our system. There will also be demonstrations of EDRS software from different vendors that are being implemented in other states.
Other CHS staff will be attending workshops regarding future developments in national Intelligence Reform regulations, which may have an impact on future software development for the OVERS program.
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| Our Colleagues in Neighboring States |
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A small but significant number of Oregon deaths are processed by funeral directors in the states immediately adjoining Oregon and our system will support these out-of-state users. To help publicize this, Mike Day, the EDRS Communications Coordinator, recently presented at the Southwest District meeting of the Washington State Funeral Director’s Association. Dennis McPhee of the Washington State Funeral and Cemetery Licensing office, and a key participant in Washington’s EDRS system, also attended the meeting.
There was a lot of interest in our program and several questions about how it will accommodate out-of-state participants. Out-of-state funeral directors can participate in the Oregon EDRS program if they have an Oregon funeral service practitioner license or their funeral home has a Certificate of Removal Registration issued by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board. We will ensure that neighboring funeral directors are invited to trainings in the adjacent Oregon counties as part of our statewide implementation.
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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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How long will I have access to the death registration in EDRS?
Funeral directors and medical certifiers will have EDRS access to decedent records for six months after the date of death, if they were initially entered electronically. During this time they can view the record, submit amendment requests electronically, print disposition permits (funeral home users only) or print working copies of the record for their own files.
If the original record was entered into the EDRS system by the funeral director, then printed and sent to the medical certifier as a paper record – this type of record is called drop-to-paper – then different rules apply. The funeral director will have the same six month electronic access as above but the medical certifier will not be able to access the case within EDRS at all. The same rules would apply, but conversely, if the medical certifier started the case in EDRS, then dropped-to-paper and sent the paper record to the funeral director.
If a death certificate is completed solely on paper, neither the funeral director nor the medical certifier will have EDRS access to the record. Any correction affidavits or disposition permits will need to be done using paper records.
County registrars will have view-only access to all records in their county for six months after the date of death. This includes those originally entered electronically and those received on paper and entered into the system by CHS staff. Counties will also be able to print certified copies from the system for the same six-month period as they have now with the paper records.
Once we begin using the software to replace the death abstract cards (see below), county registrars will have access to death abstract information in EDRS for two years.
What other features do you have planned for the EDRS system?
Some of the upgrades we have planned include:
- Disinterment permits
- Automatic public health messaging for unusual or rare causes of death
- Replacing death abstract cards
- Online Social Security Number verification, assuming funding is received
The first three items are scheduled to be implemented in Summer 2007. The online SSN verification, if funding is obtained, should come about in January 2008.
You can find additional questions on our EDRS FAQ page.
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| Electronic Birth Registration System: EBRS |
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We have also started planning for the Electronic Birth Registration System (EBRS) module of OVERS. We have received approval for an EBRS business analyst and an EBRS training coordinator, and expect to hire these positions this summer. Statewide EBRS implementation is scheduled to begin in January 2007. This means that both the death and birth systems will be rolling out at the same time, but this was expected and planned for.
We anticipate that the EBRS rollout will be much quicker than EDRS. First, there are many fewer hospital birth registration specialists than funeral directors and medical certifiers, so there is much less training time involved. Second, EBRS will use the same core module of the OVERS software for processing certificate orders and amendments and this module will be complete when EDRS rolls out. Finally, birth registration specialists have been using an older electronic birth system since 1988, so we have been keying only 1,000 of the 46,000 births that occur in Oregon each year. Because of the birth registration specialists’ experience with the older system, they should have an easier transition to EBRS.
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| PDF Version of OVERS News |
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The sections above contain all of the articles in OVERS News, Issue 3. You can also get a pdf file of the original printed newsletter.
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