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June 2020

• OVERS News
• BIRTH News
• DEATH News
• COUNTY News

Welcome!

Welcome to the monthly newsletter for the Center for Health Statistics (CHS), Vital Records office. You will find that it is filled with information that is important for you and your facility like OVERS changes, updates to Oregon laws, statistics, available reports, and process reminders. In the table of contents on the left, click on any category of news to jump to articles of interest.

We would love to hear from you regarding future newsletter topics.

OVERS News

An OVERS Quick Guide To Prevent Duplicate Records

It is important that only one record is created per vital event in OVERS. Here is a Quick Guide to help you ensure a duplicate record isn’t created when entering a new record.

Comments in OVERS Records are Not Monitored

There is an option to leave comments on a record in OVERS. The Comments link can be found in the Other Links submenu. Comments can be added by users to cases where they want to add information that doesn’t have a specific field option in OVERS or supplemental details they want associated with the case.

Employees at the Center for Health Statistics are not notified when a comment is added to any record in OVERS. If you have a question or need to contact the Vital Records office, please call or email us directly.

For technical support, contact the OVERS Help Desk: 971-673-0279.

Additional contact information can be found on the CHS Website.

BIRTH News

Collecting COVID-19 Infection (Confirmed or Presumed) on Birth Records

In a recent email, we shared that Oregon Vital Records has been asked by the National Center for Health Statistics to start collecting information on COVID-19 infection on birth records as soon as possible.

Effective June 15, 2020, COVID-19 (confirmed or presumed) infection can be collected in OVERS and on paper birth records.

This new item is on the Pregnancy Factors page in OVERS where information is gathered related to conditions experienced by the mother, which could result in complications during labor or have health implications for the mother and/or child.

The Facility and Prenatal worksheets have been updated to include a "COVID-19 (Confirmed or Presumed)" check box in the "Infections Present and/or Treated" section. This check box will correspond with the Pregnancy Factors screen in OVERS. The worksheets with the new item are posted on the CHS Birth Website.

The source for the information will likely be the same source as the other infection items: prenatal records, labor and delivery admissions, delivery records or other medical records.

Information on confirmed or presumed COVID-19 infection among mothers will be used to gain a better understanding of disease in Oregon and nationally.

Thank you for your assistance in collecting this important information.

Please contact 971-673-1151 if you have questions about completing birth records.

How Parents Can Make Changes to a Birth Record

A parent receives their baby’s birth certificate and notices an error. Perhaps there is a misspelling, the father isn’t listed, or a middle name was left off the certificate. The parent calls you or drops in at your facility to try and fix the problem. What can you, a birth information specialist, do to help parents with this type of issue?

You should always give the parents the contact information for the Amendments department at CHS. Parents should call 971-673-1190 from 8:00am to 5:00pm, or email chs.amendments@state.or.us to find out how to make changes to a birth record.

Why should parents contact CHS directly?

• CHS has the forms that parents need to make corrections and add omitted data.
• We keep a record of any contact or correspondence, thereby creating a paper trail.
• It speeds up the process for getting the changes made.
• More time for you to work on other duties.

What does CHS do when contacted by a parent about an error on a birth certificate? Depending on the error, we may call the birth information specialist to review the Parent Worksheet. The Parent Worksheet should match what is in OVERS. If an Acknowledgement of Paternity is filed, then the father’s information should match the AOP exactly. As a reminder, no changes can be made to a Parent Worksheet after a record is registered. If the error isn’t resolved from the Parent Worksheet, then the Amendments team will send out the appropriate form to the parents to make the correction. Once the Amendments team has all the documentation to make the change, they will enter the information and affirm the amendment. After that is complete, the parents will be able to get a new certificate with the updated information. There is no charge for one birth certificate replacement if the original certificate is returned within one year from date of issue.

If a county contacts you to make changes to a birth certificate, please refer them to Amendments. For more information see the Make Changes to a Birth or Death Record page on our website.

Acknowledgment of Paternity (AOP) Training

CHS will be offering a training for Birth Information Specialists on filling out AOP forms and understanding Paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP).

We are offering two sessions:

1. Wednesday June 17^th at 8:00 am
2. Thursday June 18^th at 3:00 pm

To join the training, click on the link below on the date you would like attend. The call-in number is 888-204-5987 and the conference access code is 3941267.

https://chsdhsoha.adobeconnect.com/rtvav07lsueg/

BIS Training Reminder!

Have you completed the required BIS Training package yet?

All existing birth information specialists and midwives must complete this training and submit their training certificates by email: chs.partnerservices@dhsoha.state.or.us or fax: 971-673-1202 by September 30, 2020.

For more information, contact our Vital Records Trainer  at 971-673-1353.

DEATH News

Required Information: Informant

There must be a name, relationship and mailing address for an informant on a death record. The informant field on a death record cannot be filled in with “none” or “unknown.” The informant supplies the decedent’s personal information to complete a death record. Usually, the informant is the next of kin, but could be a nurse, police officer, medical examiner, etc. If the decedent was homeless and without identification, the informant would be listed as the medical examiner, officer, caseworker, friend or whoever provided the information (even if extremely limited) to the funeral home. Correctly identifying the informant is vital to the integrity of a death record.

Death records require the informant’s full name, relationship to the decedent, and mailing address. The informant must be accessible if the information on a death record is disputed and in some cases is needed to authorize amendments. For example, the informant must approve of certain amendments to the marital status or the spouse’s name. Not having a clear informant makes amending the record or identifying where the information came from difficult.

In cases where there are no family, friends, or associates to collect the information from, the person who contacted you to inform you of the death would be the informant.

The following are common informant errors:

• Labeling the funeral director as the informant
• The informant’s mailing address is incomplete, undeliverable, or “Unknown"

Consider the following example: Officer Smith conducts a welfare check on John Doe. She discovers the deceased, and immediately contacts the medical examiner and Jane, the next of kin. Jane’s husband, Jeff, calls the funeral director to transport the remains and provides the decedent’s personal information for the death record. Who is the informant? While there are many people and roles in this example, Jeff is the informant because he was the source of the decedent’s personal information to complete the death certificate.

COUNTY News

The Importance of Completing an Order in OVERS

Every day, vital records county staff like you are taking care of customers and providing them with important documents, adhering to vital records policies and procedures, and focusing on continuous improvement. With all our vital records offices being centered around high-quality customer service, there is one small, but very important improvement that can make all our work even better: selecting “Complete.”

When your county office prepares a customer’s order for a birth or death certificate, the importance of selecting “Complete” after entering the intaglio paper number can’t be stressed enough. Not only does selecting “Complete” save the intaglio paper number along with the order number and other associated information, but it also fulfills the entire order in OVERS and allows the system to generate important and high-quality accounting and issuance reports. These issuance reports are then used for budgeting and planning resources for future vital records processing throughout the state.

Thanks for your hard work and dedication to vital records customers.

References to Death with Dignity Should Not Be On A Death Record

The Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) requires strict confidentiality for all participating patients and physicians, so it’s the responsibility of Vital Records Registrars and Deputies to watch for any references to DWDA on death certificates. An individual’s participation in the DWDA is confidential from the funeral home and vital records staff. Anyone reading the death certificate should not know that the decedent initiated their rights under the DWDA.

The death certificate should show that the decedent died naturally of their terminal illness. As an example, the death certificate could show the cause of death as cancer and the manner of death as “natural”. References to death with dignity, physician-assisted suicide, or any medications prescribed under the DWDA should not appear anywhere on the death certificate.

Words and acronyms to watch for:

• Physician-assisted suicide or PAS
• Death with dignity or DWD
• MAID or medical aid in dying
• DDMA or DDMP (drug combinations commonly used for DWDA)
• “Legally prescribed” or “legal prescription”
• Comfort care
• ORS 127.800 or OAR 333-009-0030

Additionally, watch for records of suicide or overdose deaths where the medical certifier is not a medical examiner. This could indicate a DWDA death that has been incorrectly reported.

If you receive a certificate of death that appears to reference Death with Dignity or Physician Assisted Suicide, do not register the certificate or issue certified copies. Please contact the CHS Registration Manager at 971-673-1191 if you have questions or need assistance in resolving situations involving Death with Dignity. If you would like to read more about Death with Dignity, information is available at www.healthoregon.org/dwd.

CHS Website

VitalChek Orders Hotline:
888-896-4988

VitalChek Order online: www.vitalchek.com

General Information: 971-673-1190

FAX: 971-673-1201

TTY: 711

For technical support, contact:
OVERS Help Desk: 971-673-0279