Last month, the Office of Vital Records (OVR) received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for a special project. The purposes of the project are to improve data collection for drug overdose deaths and to achieve interoperability between Minnesota Registration & Certification (MR&C) and one or more medical examiner/coroner case management systems. The two-year project provides OVR $320,000 for the effort, which will also explore how MR&C can better support medical examiner/coroner death registration activities and tasks related to authorizing disposition.

The project requires OVR to demonstrate the ability to transmit relevant ‘drug overdose death information’ from a medical examiner/coroner case management system to MR&C, using application programming interfaces (APIs).

OVR will bring together members of the Minnesota medical examiner/coroner community, medical certifiers, and other essential partners to work on improvements. Under the project, OVR will work to understand the business needs of medical examiners and coroners in addition to how we can improve collecting data about drug overdose deaths. We want to work together to identify and prioritize improvements and system changes (including those to MR&C) that help everyone.

Over the next few months during the initial phase of discovery and exploration, OVR will assess the environment, gather information, and determine partner readiness for interoperability. OVR will interview key medical examiner/coroner partners and staff involved in registering deaths. We will also host listening sessions. OVR hopes to gain insight into business needs, processes, drug overdose information, and how OVR can improve service, support and reach agreement on improvements to MR&C. Next, OVR will identify one or more medical examiner/coroner offices to participate in the NCHS special project and work on interoperability.

OVR invites MR&C users from medical examiner and coroner offices to get involved. Share information about OVR’s plan with others at your office. Select a representative who can participate in an interview with OVR staff. Think about who might attend the later listening session. Email information about your designated representative and questions about the project to OVR: anne.kleppe@state.mn.us.

Did you know there are approximately 5,000 traumatic work-related deaths and tens of thousands work-related deaths from illnesses reported each year?

By reporting accurate data on industry and usual or lifetime occupation of decedents, funeral directors and others involved in the death registration process are helping to improve statistics on occupational mortality and worker health.

Public health program planners and researchers rely on funeral directors to record the best information possible on potential risk factors, including potentially hazardous jobs held by decedents during their working lives.

The usual (longest-held) occupation and kind of business or industry of workers can reveal the national illness and injury burden by industry and occupation. Such information can help detect jobs that may have a high risk for death due to injury, cancer, or other diseases and for which prevention efforts can be concentrated or targeted.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reviews the quality of the occupation and industry reported, combines it with the NCHS mortality data, and reports U.S. occupational mortality trends.

Check out the NIOSH Guidelines for Reporting Occupation and Industry on Death Certificates for details on reporting Occupation and Industry items when entering death records into Minnesota Registration and Certification (MR&C). The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) updated the publication to provide guidance on completing the Decedent’s Usual Occupation and Kind of Business/Industry items on death certificates.

In this publication, you will find examples of acceptable entries of occupation and corresponding business/industry developed by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. There is also a checklist for reviewing the quality of your entries that can be very helpful as well and example scenarios to assist in providing accurate data on decedent’s Occupation and industry.

Funeral directors must report specific and complete industry and usual occupation information for all decedents over age 14 that were ever employed, unemployed, or retired. Working together, NCHS and NIOSH improve worker health and safety.