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| Statewide Rollout Continues |
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After pausing for busy schedules during the holiday season, we have resumed our county rollouts. By the end of March, 20 of the 36 counties have received initial training and gone live with EDRS. This represents 250 funeral home staff, 80 medical office staff and 50 local registrar staff. The remaining counties will be brought online by the end of July.
We are currently below our target of having 10% of all deaths registered electronically by September 2007. Of the 5021 deaths registered in the first two months of 2007, only 1% were fully-electronic, with both the doctor and funeral director signing electronically. However, 5% were hybrid records (half of each certificate completed electronically and half on paper), which is great for mid-roll out. The remaining 94% were paper records. We expect the percentage of fully-electronic records to grow as we complete statewide rollout and especially as we get more medical certifiers using the system.
We are having increasing success with getting medical certifiers to use the system! We have staff dedicated to contacting those who certify more than ten deaths annually and also offer flexible training methods and scheduling to meet certifiers’ needs. We also have roles for medical support staff to enter information into the system. These factors, along with strong support from funeral directors and the State Medical Examiner, have generated welcome interest from the medical community. In February we trained 19 medical staff on the system and an additional 21 were trained in March. In April we will be training two large clinics with several dozen doctors and expect to get more clinic involvement as rollout continues. We are also re-contacting medical certifiers in counties that rolled out early.
Timeline
Here is our upcoming county rollout schedule. This is subject to revision, but reflects our current plan. You can always check for the most recent dates on the schedule page of the OVERS website: www.oregon.gov/dhs/ph/overs/.
Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Wheeler:
April 16-20
Grant, Morrow, Umatilla:
May 8-10
Klamath, Lake:
May 30-31
Baker, Union, Wallowa:
June 12-14
Harney, Malheur:
June 26-28
Jackson, Josephine:
July 10-12
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| Software Updates |
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VitalChek has installed the next software update to our EDRS test system. We have been reviewing and testing this update and when all is OK, we will update the production system that you work with later this spring.
Some of the new features include Internet Explorer 7.x compatibility and improved amendment processing functionality. There are also extensive “behind the scenes” improvements that make it easier for our office to administer the system.
The spring upgrade also includes online verification of SSNs with the Social Security Administration. This will replace sending the Form 721 with clicking a link in EDRS. The system will then notify you of the verification results, typically within minutes to hours. This will allow you to quickly contact the family, if needed. This interface reduces the number of correction affidavits created due to SSN issues.
We will provide you with additional documentation and online tutorials about using the new features.
After the spring update is complete, we will begin review and testing of the summer release. This release will allow you to order certified copies directly through the system, a feature many of you will welcome. It will also include full support for Windows Vista.
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| Web-Based Software Solutions |
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This is a good opportunity to discuss the advantages of a Web-based software product. The primary advantage is that that you do not have to install anything on your computer. (The only exception is the one-time installation of the biometric device, if you sign death certificates.)
This means you only need to go to a Web site to access the system. If there are any software changes, such as adding features or fixing defects (“bugs”), these are performed on our servers and the new functionality is there when you next log in. This frees you from having to install any periodic updates and you won’t have to download and install a software patch if there are any “bug” fixes. It also ensures that all users are working with the most recent version of the software.
Another major advantage of Web-based solutions is that they are available to you on any PC and in any place that you can access the Internet. If you are a signer, you can install the biometric device drivers on multiple computers, and then just take the device with you. Many of our users access EDRS from multiple places as they move between offices or work from home.
Because of these advantages, most of the vendors marketing EDRS systems have chosen a Web-based model.
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| Staff News |
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Thanks to funding from the Social Security Administration, we recently hired extra training staff to help complete the EDRS rollout. We now have two teams alternating between providing training and support in the field, then preparing for the next training cycle at our office. We also have our trainers concentrating on specific user groups, although they are cross-trained on all.
Dan Possumato recently came on-board as an EDRS Trainer and is focusing on training funeral home staff. Larry Kruggel is a new Trainer focusing on medical certifiers. Anna Ghonim is also a new Trainer, focusing on County Registrar staff in addition to providing post-training onsite support.
Terrina Marple provides Administrative Support to the training teams and assists users during the trainings. Carlos Herrera is an EDRS Technician, providing user technical consulting and support before and after training. Finally, we are currently recruiting for an additional EDRS Technician. We are very excited to have this additional support; without it, rollout completion would have been delayed.
In other staff news, Karen Cooper has joined us as a business analyst, replacing Patricia Cunningham. Karen is working on development of our upcoming birth system, but also performs a lot of EDRS testing and user support.
Finally, Ember Talent was promoted from Logistics Coordinator to Business Analyst. She performs software testing, develops business requirements for the death and birth system and provides user support. We are currently recruiting for the now-vacant Logistics Coordinator position.
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| Website Changes |
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Our website is a great resource for you to stay current on OVERS. The latest news appears on the main page, in addition to a Frequently Asked Questions section, training tips and other information. The Calendar page shows our latest schedule information while the Training page contains an overall description of the training process, as well as training resources such as system tutorials and user guides.
User guides are also available on the Resources page along with system requirements, forms and links to various state and national vital records resources. We have recently added the device drivers needed for the biometric (fingerprint) devices, in case you can’t find your installation CD.
You can find the OVERS website at www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/overs.
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| Printers for Certified Copies |
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Note: This article only directly applies to county registrars.
With OVERS, certified copies of birth and death records are printed directly from a computer, rather than photocopying a paper document. We have developed recommendations for types of printers to be used when making certified copies and will soon mail the recommendations to you. These are only recommendations and you will not be required to purchase a new printer at this time.
The recommendations consider four main objectives:
- Ensuring that certified copies cannot be altered without detection;
- Cost, both for initial purchase and for consumables;
- Physical security and tracking of intaglio certificate paper; and
- Meeting requirements of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
Please read these recommendations thoroughly when they arrive. They discuss several issues you should be aware of when thinking about printing with the new system.
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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 5. You can also get a pdf file of the original printed newsletter.
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