Success!

Our first electronic death certificate is complete. We pick it up from Vital Statistics tomorrow. It went surprisingly well. The doctor printed neatly and checked all the appropriate boxes, and we had no trouble finishing the certificate and forwarding it to the state. Just a couple of hours after sending it, we had cremation approval from the medical examiner and final certification. I hope they all go as smoothly.

Switching gears for a few moments, it seems customer service is dying. I called two different internet providers to see about getting us broadband (right now we use a laptop air-card). One company wanted an $1800 deposit to run the equipment to our location, and a three year contract at $109 per month. The other company said they are researching what it would take to run the equipment to our location, but the process is on hold and we may hear from them in 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 years. Wow. So I did some research and found a company in the nearby big city that specializes in wireless broadband. I emailed them for a quote, received a response that promised an answer within 4 hours during regular business hours, and never heard back at all. Pathetic.

First Electronic Death Certificate

Today we entered our first electronic death certificate. It was surprisingly easy, except when it came time to fax the record to the doctor, we were at a loss. It seems the tutorial and orientation never actually covered the process to do this. So we called the help desk and they pointed us in the right direction. We are currently waiting for the doctor to sign and fax it back to the system. We anticipate that happening tomorrow. After the doctor signs and faxes back, we take the information provided and enter it into the death certificate, then forward it to the state for approval. My only concern is reading some of these doctor's handwriting. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tomorrow Is The Day

Tomorrow is the official kickoff of the Electronic Death Certificate system in our county. I'm curious to see how this will work out. Sometime tomorrow we should receive our access to the system, then we can fully understand what we'll be dealing with. I did go through the tutorials several times, but I don't know if any of my colleagues have. I'll keep you posted as to how it works out.