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| EDRS Update |
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There has been a lot happening with EDRS since the last newsletter. During the past three months, we have been testing the software in our office and working with VitalChek, our vendor, to ensure the software meets Oregon’s specifications. The registration portion is generally working well and CHS has begun entering 2006 death certificates. We celebrated a key milestone on February 6, 2006 when the first real record was entered into the system. Our Data Entry Specialists are continuing to enter 2006 deaths into the system, even though our external partners are not yet able to do this.
We are, however, still working on developing the portion of the software that processes amendments and issues certified copies of death certificates. Because these sections are not yet ready to implement, we have delayed the beginning of pilot testing until the necessary software changes can be made and tested. We now expect that external pilot testing will begin on May 1st and will last for 4-6 weeks. This is a shorter pilot testing period than originally planned, but we are confident that this will be sufficient time to test the system with our external partners. Statewide rollout will be pushed back one month, now beginning at the end of July 2006, but we will adjust the schedule to still complete rollout by the end of July 2007, as originally planned. We will inform you of the rollout schedule in this newsletter and on our website, once it is finalized.
Even though the beginning of pilot testing has been delayed, our pilot partners attended training on the new system during the last week of February and the first week of March. After working with the software for the first time, they are very excited about it and will continue to practice in our test system. They will also receive EDRS refresher training shortly before piloting begins.
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| Breaking News |
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On Sunday, March 5th, the Oregonian published an article about our EDRS system in their business section. You can find it online at: http://tinyurl.com/ketre.
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| EDRS Technology Update |
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In order to ensure that only legally authorized people are electronically signing the death certificate, we are using what is known as two-factor authentication. As implemented in EDRS, two-factor authentication combines something you know – a user ID and password – with something you are – your fingerprints. This is a very accurate way of verifying the identity of the funeral director and medical certifier who completed the death certificate.
In order to enroll the fingerprints of funeral directors and medical certifiers, we have developed procedures which require photo identification and a copy of their professional license. Once these are provided and verified, signers will be able to enroll their fingerprints into the system at the local county registrar’s office. We will also perform biometric enrollment during our local training sessions, on other trips around the state and in our Portland office.
The system does not store actual fingerprint images. It only stores a digital value that is based on selected characteristics of the fingerprint and this value is created in a process that cannot be reversed. When a user signs the death certificate electronically, a digital value is created from this new fingerprint scan and compared with the value originally stored to verify the identity. It is not possible for anyone to generate actual fingerprints from these digital values, nor can they be used in any other biometric system.
More information on OVERS biometric security and privacy will soon be available from the resources page of our website.
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| EDRS Impact Assessment |
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We have completed an Impact Assessment of the EDRS project on the State and our external partners. This document also contains a Communications and Support Plan to address the identified impacts. You can get a copy of the document from the resources page of our website.
Very briefly, there will be significant changes to workflows and some increased workload in our office, but EDRS should increase data accuracy and improve relationships with our external partners. Our external partners should see faster processing of death certificate registrations and the issuing of certified copies. Funeral directors may also realize some significant time savings.
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| Get To Know Our Project Team - Part 2 |
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In our first issue, we introduced you to some of the people responsible for implementing OVERS. This issue introduces those who are working “behind the scenes” to make OVERS a reality.
Patricia Cunningham is our internal Business Analyst. She helps ensure that our functional and business requirements are met and that new business processes are developed and documented. She will also serve as the internal system administrator. Patricia brings more than 17 years of experience in the telecommunications industry helping to develop and implement new computer applications.
Sandra Sams is the System Architect and DHS Technical Lead. She ensures that the design of the system integrates with the State’s technical environment. Sandra has worked as an Information Technology Analyst and Consultant for almost 20 years in the public and non-profit sectors.
Bill Ellis is our lead external Quality Assurance Consultant. He works for Agilis Solutions, which has a DHS contract to provide quality assurance oversight to this project. This oversight significantly increases the likelihood of a successful project. Bill brings 30 years of experience in information technology design, consulting, development and software management.
There are many more people than we have space to introduce who are working very hard to make this project a success. However we did want to quickly mention five of them.
Carol Sanders is the CHS Certification Manager, working with the EDRS project team to ensure that copies of death certificates can be printed for our customers in a timely and effective manner.
Joyce Grant-Worley is the CHS Statistics Unit Manager and her staff will compile and report death statistics using information from the new system.
Robert Barker and Rick Quendun are in OIS Computer Resource Management and manage the EDRS servers. They have also been instrumental in implementing the software at the DHS data center.
Finally, Glenda Koehler is the OIS Service Desk Manager and her staff will be providing user support as the system begins rollout.
“My deepest thanks to the EDRS Project team and all the other people who are working very hard to make this a successful project.” -Jennifer Woodward,State Registrar
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| Getting The Word Out |
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We are starting to get busy making presentations to various groups about EDRS. In November 2005 and again in January 2006, we made presentations to regional meetings of the Oregon Funeral Director’s Association. These included a presentation of the benefits of EDRS, our implementation timeline and a demonstration of the software. Funeral directors seem to be very excited about the new system.
In February we made a similar presentation to a group of doctors, administrators and information technology staff at Oregon Health Sciences University. Our discussion brought up several good issues about implementing EDRS within a large medical setting and we will share these with other hospitals as we prepare to roll out the new system.
You can download copies of these presentations on our resources page.
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| Contact Information |
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| PDF Version of OVERS News |
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The sections above contain all of the articles in OVERS News, Issue 2. You can also get a pdf file of the original printed newsletter.
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