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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.
CHS encourages everyone to read through other section articles, something may just pertain to you and your facility.
We would love to hear from you regarding future newsletter topics.
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Notify OVERS When Users Leave
When an employee leaves your facility, it is important to notify OVERS in a timely manner to ensure the employee no longer has access to OVERS.
It is necessary for the Center for Health Statistics to maintain the most up to date list of current users accessing the system. Vital records are confidential documents that attest to individual identity. Employees that no longer work for your facility cannot have access to OVERS which has these restricted records. When the accounts of previous employees are disabled, those old users are also removed from email lists which CHS uses to communicate with partners.
It is the responsibility of managers or administrators to notify the OVERS Help Desk by sending a letter on company letterhead that the employee has left. Once this letter is received, the employee will be end dated and will no longer have access to your facility records. The letter should include the name of the employee and the date of termination. Letters should be faxed to (971) 673-1201.
Contact the OVERS Help Desk at (971) 673-0279 with any questions about this process.
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Limiting Use of “Unknown” Values
Birth data is an important source of information that can be used to identify public health problems, monitor progress in public health and inform public policy to improve the health of all Oregonians.
The Center for Health Statistics (CHS) regularly receives a report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) that lists fields with high numbers of “unknown” values. It is important to keep these “unknowns” to as few as possible. Complete and accurate information helps many public health programs to seek special or additional funding to strengthen resources available to all. Having good quality data also helps programs to better understand the associations there may be between race, geographical regions and potential health disparities. For these reasons, complete, accurate and standardized reporting of all vital events is critical.
The most recent Unknown Report from NCHS contained six fields with high levels of “unknown” values. The following are the fields with the largest numbers of “unknowns”:
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 We ask for your help to reduce the number of items marked “Unknown” when entering information into a case. “Unknown” should be chosen only on rare occasions. If you do not have this information, please check with the parents before they leave your facility. If any of the unknown items are above the national standard set by the NCHS, your facility may be notified and required to review those birth records. Unknowns for your facility will show on your monthly Birth Facility Performance report.
Thank you for all your help in getting this important data when filling out birth records.
Contact Megan Welter at (971) 673-1153 or Megan.L.Welter@dhsoha.state.or.us for any questions regarding unknowns.
Add Comments to Birth Records
Birth Information Specialists should add comments to birth records in OVERS to clarify any unique circumstances or overrides. Adding comments means avoiding receiving calls from the state office and more efficient registration of birth records for families.
Please add a comment when overriding any yellow edits. Some of the most common are listed below with suggested comments in italics.
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Child has no first name
Parent has not decided the child’s first name
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Child’s name is blank
Parent has not named the child
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Father’s information is blank
Mother is married but husband is not the father of the baby, or mother refuses to put the father’s information on the record
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Date of last normal menses (when the yellow edit appears)
Last normal menses is correct
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Mother weight gain (when a yellow edit appears)
Weight is correct
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Previous live births or other pregnancy outcomes number (when the yellow edit appears)
Other pregnancy outcome is correct
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Any other unique situation
e.g. mother refused to fill birth worksheet, adoption, not born at the facility, etc.
How do I add a comment to a record in OVERS?
Each record has a ‘Comments’ link in the Birth Registration Menu located in the left-hand column of the record.
In the Comments Section, you can be more specific about the details of any overrides. You can save yourself from a follow up call by clarifying in advance with a comment. For any questions contact Megan Welter at (971) 673-1153 or Megan.L.Welter@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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New! Oregon Mortality Data Dashboards
The Center for Health Statistics is proud to present our first public data dashboards on topics related to mortality 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.
Available Dashboards:
Updated Annually:
Updated Weekly:
The Center for Health Statistic's Annual Report website has links to each dashboard. These mortality 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 partners. Thank you for the hard work you do every day. If you have any questions or feedback to share, please let us know at CHS.Statistics@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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24-Hour Notice
OVERS automatically generates a 24-hour notice when an electronic or hybrid death records has been started in OVERS. An OVERS Quick Reference Guide for 24-Hour Notice Card with step by step instructions can be found here.
A 24-hour notice is not automatically generated in OVERS for fully paper death records. Funeral homes will still need to fax or mail in the paper 24-Hour Receipt of Body cards for fully paper records. Only 0.3% of registered death records, about 11 record per month, are fully paper death records.
The Special Registration Processing Queue contains 24-hour notices for death records that were electronically entered by funeral homes (fully electronic and drop to paper/hybrid records).
The 24-hour notices for fully electronic and hybrid death records will remain in a county's Special Registration Processing Queue until the county selects that the disposition permit has been received.
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There is a way to remove records from the Special Registration Processing Queue if the disposition permit is never received. The county can click on the checkbox next to the death record in the queue then select ‘Remove From Queue’.
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Remember to enter a comment stating the disposition permit was never received. Click on Comments, then select “General Comments” from the drop-down menu. Enter your comments stating that the disposition permit was not received and click Save.
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 If you have any questions regarding the 24-Hour Notice, contact Caroline Zanot at (971) 673-1166 or Caroline.Zanot@dhsoha.state.or.us.
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Welcome, Amy Gehrke!
We are happy to announce that Amy Gehrke has joined the Partner Services Team here at the Center for Health Statistics. Amy will serve as the Training & Communications Coordinator where she will oversee and coordinate CHS communications, including monthly newsletter production and website updates.
Amy was raised in the Northwest (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Oregon) and has also lived in California. She has spent most of her career in education. After working as a teacher in grades 5 – 8, she worked in higher education in the Admission and Enrollment Department at Concordia University. Amy enjoys reading, music, game nights (now virtual), good belly laughs and polling people for their favorite shows and podcasts. Amy is excited to bring her skills and experience to the Center for Health Statistics and feels grateful for the opportunity to join the team!
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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
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