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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.
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Leaving Voicemail
The Center for Health Statistics team gets a lot of voicemail from you, our partners. Thank you for calling. When leaving a voicemail, please speak clearly and remember to include:
- Your full name
- Direct phone number
- Your facility name and/or title
- A case ID, if applicable and a brief explanation of the reason for your call.
All this information will help us be prepared when returning your call.
Password Reset Guide
The password reset functionality allows OVERS users to reset their own password after getting locked out or if they forgot their password.
Click on the “Forgot your password?” link under the username field, the next screen will require your username and a captcha security code. Continue through the prompts to receive an email with the temporary password. Once you have received the email, you can log back into OVERS and reset the password.
Step by step instructions:
- Select the Forgot your password? link under the Username field.
 2. Enter your username and the Captcha security code from the image and click NEXT.
 3. Answer the security question that follows and click Next. If you do not know the answer to your security question, please call the OVERS help desk at 971-673-0279 to complete the process.
4. Click Continue to receive the temporary password email.
6. You will receive an email from ORVR.OHD@STATE.OR.US with your temporary password. Check your spam folder if you don’t receive the email within a few minutes. You may copy and paste the password when logging into OVERS.
5. Log into OVERS with your temporary password.
7. You will be prompted to create a new password on the “Change Password” screen. Your “old password” will be the temporary password that was emailed to you. You can also change your security question at this time. You have a choice of four questions. Click Save once you have finished.
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New! Oregon Birth and Pregnancy Data Dashboards
The Center for Health Statistics has launched their first public data dashboards on topics related to birth and pregnancy in Oregon. These dashboards are the beginning of a new project to present Oregon’s annual vital record data in more accessible, engaging and interactive ways.
The three dashboards are:
The Center for Health Statistic's Annual Report website hosts links to each dashboard along with a crosswalk to our previous annual report tables, as well as a downloadable file of each dashboard’s underlying data.
These birth and pregnancy dashboards cover several critical topics of interest to the public, but they are also a work in progress. We plan to expand the topics they cover as well as develop new dashboards, each with a different or more specific focus.
We couldn’t do any of what we do without you, our data partners. Thank you for the hard work you do every day to register, amend, preserve, and issue our vital records.
If you have any questions or feedback to share, please let us know at CHS.Statistics@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Birth Dashboards Quiz
See how well you can answer these questions after reviewing the birth and pregnancy data dashboards.
Q 1: In 2017, what percentage of mothers who planned an out-of-hospital birth used tobacco during their pregnancy? How does that compare to planned hospital births?
Q 2: In what year did the rate of pregnancies among ages 35-39 peak in Oregon between 2010 and 2019?
Q 3: In 2018, how many births occurred statewide to mothers ages 25-29? How many of those were to residents of Multnomah County?
Q 4: What percentage of Malheur county deliveries were paid for with Medicaid in 2019? What percentage were paid with private insurance?
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A 1: 1.9% of mothers used tobacco in planned out-of-hospital births versus 9.3% in planned hospital births.
A 2: The rate of pregnancies among ages 35-39 peaked in 2017 at 57.9 per 1,000 women.
A 3: There were 12,038 births among ages 25-29 in 2018. Multnomah County accounted for 1,828 of those births.
A 4: 71.9% of Malheur county residents in 2019 paid for their delivery with Medicaid, while 24.8% were private insurance.
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Home Burial Reminder
If you have a customer asking about home burials without funeral home assistance, please refer them to us. We keep track of home burials and send a home burial packet to the customer only if death is imminent.
If you have questions about the home burial process, please contact Megan Welter at (971) 673-1151 or megan.l.welter@dhsoha.state.or.us.
New OVERS Medical Certifiers and Authenticator App Users
This year the Center for Health Statistics has made a concerted effort to communicate the benefits of using OVERS to enter death records. Some of those benefits include:
- Death records can be registered automatically or the next business day giving families faster access to certified copies.
- Built-in edits improve accuracy of records and reduce the need for amendments due to omissions.
- Electronic records do not get lost in the mail.
- For hospital deaths, the law requiring electronic certification is met.
We are happy to announce that, due to these efforts, we have enrolled 35 new Facility Administrators and 414 new medical certifiers since March. To make entering a death record even easier, we introduced the Authenticator App for OVERS. The Authenticator App is a new option used to certify a record using a phone app which doesn’t require a biometric device. We currently have 934 medical certifiers that have signed up to use this option.
The goal for getting the word out about OVERS and the Authenticator App was to increase the number of death records entered electronically. In September of this year 70.4% of deaths were fully electronic. Only 59.4% of the death records were fully electronic in September of 2019. This is an 11 percent increase from one year to the next. This is a move in the right direction, and we are working to get even more death records entered in OVERS.
If you would like more information about using OVERS or the Authenticator App contact Kathy Ellis, the Vital Records Trainer, at (971) 673-1353 or kathy.ellis@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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Your Monthly Birth Report
We’re going to break down the report you receive about the middle of each month, as there have been some questions about what each section means.
The first section – All Births Occurring in County – is a listing of all the births that occurred in the county, showing the child’s name and date of birth, the mother’s name, address and phone number, county of residence, the Oregon State File Number, the file date and the facility of birth.
The second section – First Births – is a listing of all babies born to first-time mothers. All the information given is the same as in the first section.
The third section – Births Occurring for Residents of Other Counties – will show the information about mothers who live in other counties, including outside the state of Oregon, but delivered their baby within your county. All the information given is the same as in the first section.
The fourth section – Births Occurring for County Residents – will show only those births for residents of your county, regardless of place of birth. All the information given is the same as in the first section.
If the Birth Facility field is blank, that indicates a home birth.
It is important to know some of the reasons why these reports are necessary:
- First time mothers are identified in their county for follow up by the county health department.
- Counties give these reports to their local health department for population totals.
- Local health departments follow up for immunizations and other services.
- Shows mothers from other counties delivering in their county.
Please remember that the information contained in the monthly report is confidential and cannot be shared without anyone outside the public health department.
If you have questions about the Monthly Birth Report, please contact Megan Welter at megan.l.welter@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Welcome to the Partner Services Training and Communication Team, Caroline Zanot!
Caroline is the point of contact for our county partners and to conduct triennial reviews. Caroline will also oversee and coordinate administrative rules and legislative analysis and facilitate process improvements within CHS. She has lived in South Carolina, South Dakota, Oregon, Arkansas and Texas. She has worked for the Veterans Health Administration coordinating health education initiatives and most recently worked for the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Section. In this role, Caroline traveled the state working to improve vital records registration and conducted county reviews and trainings. She is happy to return to Portland and to further her career in public health and vital statistics. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, reading (any genre), biking, meditating and cooking. She is excited to join CHS and to work with our county partners. Caroline’s contact information is, (971) 673-1166 or by email, caroline.zanot@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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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
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