Vital Records Death Reporting FHIR Implementation Guide - Local Development build (v1.1.0). See the Directory of published versions

Death Reporting Dataflow

The following diagram depicts the major flow of vital records of death information. Information about the decedent is captured from a variety of sources, including but not limited to electronic health record systems. Death investigation activities yield additional information concerning the manner of death, factors contributing to the cause of death, and the causal pathway of the cause of death conditions.

Medicolegal Death Investigators file death certifications with state death registrars where that data are combined with information concerning the disposition of the descendants remains. State registrars report death incidents occurring in their jurisdiction to the CDCs National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).