We are proud to announce that after weeks of testing and training, the Electronic Birth Registration System (EBRS) went live on January 1, 2008! The first birth certificates of the year were entered on the 1st and the first certificates were signed and registered on the 2nd. We're very excited that this project is off to a great start.

All hospital births that occur on or after January 1st are entered directly into the new system by hospital staff. Those relatively few birth certificates that are completed on paper will be added to EBRS by Center for Health Statistics staff. Standalone birthing centers and midwives will be able to begin using EBRS sometime this Spring. (Look for further information about midwives and birthing centers in the upcoming months.)

We are continuing to provide training to hospital birth staff and County registrars in January. These training plans are available on our Training page, with links below or in the left menu.

You can also view or download a PowerPoint demo of the EBRS software from our resources page.

Effective for deaths occurring on May 1, 2008 or later, the pdf death certificate file will no longer be accepted by the State Registrar or your local County Registrar. The only pdf-based death certificates that will be accepted for deaths occurring on or after May 1st are those created by the EDRS program. (The system can be used to create pdf files - referred to as Drop-to-Paper - if the medical certifier is not using the electronic system, but the funeral home is.)

This pdf file has always been considered a temporary measure, while we developed and implemented the EDRS project. Now that EDRS is available statewide, we will be discontinuing use of this fillable pdf file. County Registrar staff will be instructed on how to identify an EDRS-generated pdf. One noticeable difference is that the EDRS pdf files have a barcode on the upper left that identifies the record in the system.

A letter with this notification was mailed to all funeral homes on March 5th. You can also download a copy in the first link below.

The second link provides information on additional EDRS training opportunities, as well as continuing EBRS training opportunities for midwives and birthing centers.

In the last month, we added 54 new medical certifiers to EDRS, bringing the total number of medical signers to 953. Typically, we are adding 80-100 new medical staff each month.

We also now have a total 2,200 users in OVERS, and with midwives now able to use the system, we have 270 birth certifiers. The link below will take you to our new User Update page for the latest information, including a breakdown of user types and a summary of facilities enrolled in OVERS.