Bringing Vital Records into the Future: The Impact on Your State or County  

Why Digitize Vital Records?

Vital records are more than just a historical database; they are critical tools for public health and emergency planning. Yet vital records––birth, death, marriage and divorce––are behind the times when it comes to digitization and information sharing. Despite the need to exchange them quickly, vital records take a long time to travel from one source to the next.

“Vital statistics data are tremendously valuable because the data represents the universe of events, not a sample. Vital-event reporting is mandatory, as it is with many reportable diseases and conditions,” notes Steven Schwartz in the National Library of Medicine. In other words, because vital events legally require documentation, vital records give us a complete picture of the population, not just a partial sample. For this reason, it’s crucial that vital records catch up with modern healthcare technology.

As you might expect, COVID played a pivotal role in bringing vital records into the technology mainstream. During the pandemic, it was discovered that searching, retrieving and sharing information was not as easy as it should be. The Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC) provided a grant through the CDC to help retrieve data holistically.

Why is the digitization of vital records so critical? Because having near-real time data allows us to make informed decisions when it comes to public health and spending. For example, it’s important to compare health information by states and counties––all of which are guaranteed to have vital records as sources. By looking at death certificates, we can tell exactly how many people died from drug overdose or while imprisoned. Some information might be more important in one state or another, which means data aggregation should be standardized but allow for nuances in public health.

A Strong Foundation for Data Modernization

Today, states and counties are at various phases of data modernization. Some have their own digitized system, whereas others maintain vital records on paper. As an IT provider, Netsmart is responsible for helping create a single system that allows for exchange and display of data.

Counties, states and their partner organizations should, and need, to have the ability to exchange information with the least amount of friction. Bonus: if this can be done from a single platform. This is the kind of approach Netsmart is helping states implement for vital records. Everything is standardized, with the ability for each state or county to configure the system to meet their unique needs. For instance, offices can implement their own updates––forms, label changes and adding fields for more questions to applications.

With this streamlined, digitized system, vital records offices are creating a solid foundation that follows standards set by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), required elements for death certificates and more.

Thinking About the Future of Vital Records: Life, Death and Everything in Between

It’s not enough to simply digitize vital records. To be effective, they must be used in a particular way––one that promotes interoperability. According to the Healthcare Information Management Society (HIMS), interoperability is defined as the extent to which systems and devices can exchange data and interpret that shared data. 

Let’s take an example of this: creating a holistic view of everyone in a healthcare setting. Every provider this person encounters, from acute care to behavioral health and human services, should be able to view the same information and immediately receive the information they need. Information should be shared effortlessly among all providers, on a single platform. And these holistic views should begin and end with vital records.

Another key to interoperability is standardization. Fast Healthcare Interoperability (FHIR) Initiative has laid out a set of rules and specifications for exchanging electronic healthcare data, helping IT systems communicate with a common language. Standardization improves accuracy and speed in processing vital records documents. It also contributes to interoperability by allowing data sharing and tracking to be automated. And the sharing of vital records has significant implications for states and counites. This information is how funding is allocated and how grants are divvied up to help states during public health challenges.

The ability to exchange vital records can provide a use case in an acute care hospital, or used in communication with families after someone has died. In all cases, data must not only be accurate, but it must also be sharable electronically.

Security of Electronic Documentation

Of course, data modernization always leads to another topic: data security. How do we make records sharable, safe and secure?

You need an electronic birth certificate you can safely send to the insurance company. Or a way to ensure people requesting their documents know they’re valid certificates instead of a hard copy or scanned version. Technology such as QR codes and digital validation exist to make sure vital records can’t be manipulated. This is important because so much of what is transferred online is far from secure. For example, if you have an image of your car or health insurance card on your phone right now that’s not a secure file. However, if every vital records office used a single, secure portal, then all data could be exchanged safely and without concern.

Conclusion

The single-platform approach that Netsmart is developing alongside states and counties will streamline records delivery to other agencies––and the general population––quickly and more efficiently. At the end of the day, vital records must be accessible to everyone in a secure and timely fashion. Stay tuned for more updates as Netsmart continues to bring innovation, support and expert collaboration to this process. Vital records really are essential to many endeavors, from public health to public access. It’s time we bring them into the future where they belong.