1. EDEN Electronic Death Entry Network
Jeff Duncan
Office of Vital Records and Statistics
Utah Department of Health
Phone:
October 18, 2007

2. Death Certificate Permanent Legal Record prima facie evidence of death
Required for: death benefits, insurance, internment
Statistical data collection
Public health program management
Medical and public health research
Permanent Legal Record
Prima facie—sufficient to establish the fact.
Required for insurance benefits, pension claims, real estate and title transfer
Statistical data collection, data submitted to:
Federal agencies such as NCHS, SSA, CPSC
State agencies, Health department programs, Workforce Services, Division of Aging, Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (for population projection)
Research Institutions such as Huntsman Cancer, Utah Cancer Registry, IICRC
On request to universities, college students, private citizens

3. Legal Requirements
DC must be filed with local registrar within 5 days of death
By statute, funeral director is responsible for death registration
Certifying physician or ME completes medical section within 72 hours from time of death
-DC filed within 5 days of death
-required before internment or transport of body out of state
-In Utah there are 12 local registrars
-Funeral director that first takes custody of body is required to complete certificate
-Death certificates ordered by judges are called “Delayed death certificates”. We typically have 1-2 of these a year in Utah.

4. Paper Death Certificate Flow
Electronic Death Registration—Birth records are entirely electronic, keyed at hospital and ed to state. Deaths are more difficult due to the number of people involved. Some states are now experimenting with electronic deaths, Utah will be a few years yet.

5. What is electronic death registration?
Paperless death certificates
SSN Verification
Electronic authentication
Burial permit printing at funeral home
Remote ordering of certified copies
Electronic corrections and amendments
-Internet technology—ROSE is the testbed
-Electronic authentication--

6. EDEN Development SSA Funding—October 2004 Advisory committee formed
State and local vital records personnel
Funeral directors
Physicians
Chief Medical Examiner
Development by OVRS programmers and Gold Systems, Inc.
Production: August 1, 2006

7. Benefits of Eden Improved timeliness of data Higher quality data
National Security
Greater efficiency
Verified Social Security numbers
-Fact of death within 24 hours
-Completed death certificate within 4 days, within 24 hrs of registration
-OVS– online verification system

8. EDEN Technical Specs Secure Internet application
SSN verification with Social Security
Database—MySQL on DOH Linux server
PHP and VBScript
24/7 operation

9. Electronic Death Certificate Flowchart
Funeral Director
Physician
OME
EDEN Database
MySQL
OVRS
LHD
Death Certificates
Federal and state Agencies
Reports
Data Requests

10. Death data goes to…. Federal Agencies State Agencies Others
NCHS, SSA, CPSC
State Agencies
DOH programs, DWS, GOPB, Elections Office
Others
Utah Cancer, UPDB, Universities, Researchers

11. Death data timeliness