Electronic Death Registration

In the United States, State laws require that death certificates be completed for all deaths. States are developing systems in which funeral directors and physicians complete the death certificate using an electronic instead of the traditional paper record. With a paper record, comparability between State systems was facilitated by creating a U.S. Standard Certificate of Death (PDF 187KB). With an electronic record, the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death continues to have a role in facilitating standardization; however, specifications for developing systems are also distributed to the States to ensure comparability. An electronic death registration system is expected to reduce reporting delays, improve data quality, and increase the utility of death information.

In order to facilitate the standardization of cause of death in death registration systems, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has prepared specifications for the format, structure, and content of the cause-of-death section to be incorporated into these systems. The specifications are based upon existing guidelines. Adherence to the NCHS specifications will promote comparability in cause-of-death reporting among registration areas, ensure full compliance with World Health Organization regulations, ensure compatibility with mortality processing software, and promote high quality cause-of-death data. Since causes of death must be entered by physicians, medical examiners, or coroners as full text (pick lists are not allowed), the absence of specifications would result in non-comparable data on cause of death.

Additional information on the progress of electronic death registration is available from the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems’ link shown below.

NCHS Specifications for Help Screens, Prompts, and Queries on an Electronic Death Certificate (prepared by NCHS)

View/download PDF 104KB

The specifications are also available in WordPerfect^TM format 240 KB

National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems’ Electronic Death Registration Project