Electronic death certificate

2022: Mishustin approved the issuance of electronic death certificates

From March 1, 2022, electronic death certificates began to be issued in Russia. The corresponding decree was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Miushstin.

According to the document, an electronic signature will be used in digital death certificates, and the creation of such a document will become mandatory.

Previously, only paper medical death certificates were issued. This document is submitted to the registry office. Its employees make changes to civil status acts and issue a death certificate.^[1]

2021

Connecting the Death Register to the Uniform State Health Information System

On September 7, 2021, it became known about the decision of the Ministry of Health to include registers of medical documents on birth and death in the Unified State Health Information System (EGISZ). The agency wants to automate the procedure, which was always under the control of the registry office. More details here.

Start of issue

On September 1, 2021, death certificates in Russia began to be issued electronically. Previously, the relatives of the deceased had to receive a paper medical death certificate, which must be submitted to the registry office, so that they would amend the acts of civil status and issue a death certificate.

The innovation is prescribed in the relevant order "On the approval of accounting forms of medical documentation certifying deaths and the procedure for their issuance," which was approved by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The document is published on the official Internet portal of legal information.

In Russia, began to issue electronic death certificates

In the superservice at public services, the Russians were given a step-by-step instruction on what should be done in the event of the death of a relative. To register the death of a loved one from September 1, 2021, it will not be necessary to go to the registry office and collect certificates. Death is recorded no later than the next day after the application and documents are submitted. The death certificate will also come electronically.

The document will be submitted to the Unified State Information System in the field of health care, and then sent to the registry office for registration.

The order also states that it is forbidden to issue a medical certificate of death in absentia and without the medical officer personally establishing the fact of death. The order entered into force on September 1, 2021 and is valid for six years. The press service of the Ministry of Health told TASS Information Agency of Russia that the order provides the possibility of maintaining medical documentation in electronic form and allows you to create a single database of medical certificates of death, which facilitates the prompt exchange of data between different departments and provides the possibility of monitoring mortality in the regions based on primary data in real time.^[2]

2020

In Bashkiria, Dagestan and the Moscow region begin to issue electronic death certificates

On October 6, 2020, it became known about the beginning in Bashkiria, Dagestan and the Moscow Region of an experiment to create a single federal register of medical death certificates, which will transfer information to the "Unified State Register of Civil Status Records," and in an impersonal form to state statistics authorities. The operator of this resource is the Ministry of Health.

The experiment will last until the end of 2021, and an assessment of its results will be ready no later than January 31, 2022.

The corresponding draft government decree was developed following a meeting of the Presidium of the Coordinating Council for Combating the Spread of Coronavirus COVID-19. The explanatory note to the document says that the purpose of the innovations is to improve the quality of data on population mortality.

In the Russian Federation begin to issue electronic death certificates

After the medical institution determines the cause of death of a person, relatives receive a certificate in paper form. They bring the document to the local office of the registry office, and there is another paper - a record of death. Registration with the registry office is necessary in order to receive a allowance, obtain a place in the cemetery, issue an inheritance and perform other legal actions.

When discussing the digitization of the process of recognizing a citizen as dead, it was argued that this mechanism would avoid abuse by the relatives of the victims: for example, not to receive pensions and other benefits for the deceased.

Valery Elizarov, Scientific Director of the Laboratory of Population Economics and Demography at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, believes that the creation of a new registry is unlikely to be a simpler task than the digitization of civil registration records that ended by 2018.

The transition to a new format was accompanied by failures, in addition, the publication of data on the natural movement of the population began to take more time, he said in a conversation with Kommersant[3]

The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation gained access to medical certificates of death in electronic form

In mid-December 2019 Ministry of Health Russia , she gained access to medical (medical) death certificates in electronic form. The corresponding government decree is published on the official portal of legal information.

It follows from the document that the Government of the Russian Federation recommended to regional executive authorities, whose competence includes the organization of activities on state registration of acts of civil status, and local self-government bodies empowered to register civil registration, Provide access to medical death certificates to regional health authorities, Held by the State civil registration authorities to verify the completeness and quality of the coding of causes of death.

The Ministry of Health of Russia received access to medical (medical) certificates of death in electronic form

This is necessary for "the formation of reliable official statistical information about the natural movement of the population," the document says, which amends government decree No. 1746 of December 29, 2018 on the approval of the rules for providing information on state registration of civil acts contained in the Unified State Registry Office.

The decree also expands the requirements for information describing the cause of death (including stillbirth). In particular, these data should include the relevant code of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Problems.

In addition, "if there is" data clauses were excluded from the rules, which means that all fields of the section "Information on state registration of death" must be filled out without fail.^[4]

Notes