Update: Electronic Death Certificate filing reaches over 2,600 users
Next goal: Have death events filed in 10 days
Kansas physicians are successfully making the transition to filing death certificates electronically, since the requirements changed January 1st of this year. The Office of Vital Statistics reports an impressive increase from less than 500 physicians using the VRVweb Electronic Death Record System in July of 2016 (the law effective date of HB 2518) to over 2,600 users as of March 2017.
Partnering organizations, the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, worked with facilities across the state to coordinate training opportunities to help physicians and staff comply with the mandate. These efforts have proven successful.
The next challenge is to meet CDC's directive that 80 percent of all death events be filed within 10 days. For the month of February 2017, the Office of Vital Statistics reported the highest completion month, ever, of 62.8 percent of death events being filed within 10 days. Kansas is on its way to reach the 80 percent threshold.
Beginning January 1, 2017, the state of Kansas requires that all death certificates must be filed electronically. To comply with this statutory change, all physicians who certify death certificates must register with the Office of Vital Statistics at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The links for registration and training can be found on the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative website, khconline.org/news.