title: Completing Death Certificates from an EMR: Analysis of a Novel Public-Private Partnership.
abstract: With the objective of increasing electronic death registration, Intermountain Healthcare and the Utah Office of Vital Records and Statistics have developed a system enabling death certification from within Intermountain's electronic medical record (EMR), consisting of an EMR module and an HL7 interface. Comparison of post-intervention death certification at Intermountain Healthcare against a baseline study found a slight increase in the percentage of deaths certified electronically (73% pre vs. 77% post). Analysis of deaths certified using the EMR-module found that they were completed significantly sooner than those certified on paper or using the state's web-based electronic death registration system (EDRS) (Mean time: Paper = 114.72 hours, EDRS = 81.84 hours, EMR = 43.92 hours; p < 0.0001). EMR-certified deaths also contained significantly more causes of deaths than either alternative method (Mean number of causes: Paper = 3.9 causes, EDRS = 4.0 causes, EMR = 5.5 causes; p < 0.0001).
authors.affiliation: Homer Warner Center for Informatics Research, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Jacob S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tripp
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Leisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.affiliation: Homer Warner Center for Informatics Research, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah; Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Stanley M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Huff
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D003644:Death Certificates; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships; D014589:Utah