Data, Research and Vital Statistics

Maine Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS)

About EDRS:

Electronic Death Registration (EDR) in Maine

The primary purpose of an EDR system is to enable the participants of death registration to file death records electronically with the Vital Records Unit. An EDR system will provide for on-line access so that decedent fact-of-death and cause-of-death information can be registered electronically by multiple death registration participants working on the same case. An EDR system will facilitate on-line collaboration among multiple death registration users supporting the completion and filing of death records.

With an EDR system, funeral directors will be better able to serve families by obtaining copies of death certificates with fewer errors faster and more efficiently. For physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, the ability to report cause-of death with increased accuracy and timeliness can be an integral part of patient care and will also improve cause-of-death data for disease surveillance.

An EDR system will feature user-friendly death record data entry screens that are highly secure and Internet accessible, available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, and will accommodate a variety of facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, private physician practices, medical examiners, and funeral homes. The system will have on-line help and instructions built into the system to assist the users.

Potential benefits of the system include enabling faster death registration at Vital Records which will speed turnaround time for obtaining certified copies for families, will improve fraud prevention by using electronic authentication, and will improve timeliness and quality of death data by promoting uniformity in cause-of-death statistics. An EDR will save time and effort for the users of an electronic death registration system.