ROVER : electronic death registration.

              October, 2011
Volume I, Issue 4
Center for Health Statistics
clerks in the registration process. In fact, there is no “place” for them in the ROVER registration process at all.
A record that is totally electronic will be registered immediately upon arrival at Vital Records. Records that are partially electronic (i.e.., “drop to paper”) will be increasingly fewer in number. These records will be completed in ROVER when received by Vital Records and made available for certified copies sooner than past paper submissions. And the number of errors on certificates will drop to almost zero.
All of this will result in records that are more accurate, timely, and available to those who need them.
Some Big Changes in Registration Law
To All Oklahoma Funeral Directors
Effective October 3, 2011
House Bill 1397 enacted significant changes that will soon take place to eliminate certain registration processes.
Local Registrars
63 OS 1-307 is the section in state law that defines the duties of the local registrar in the death certificate registration process. Beginning November 1, 2011, this section will be repealed and local registrars will no longer exist.
County Court Clerks
In the same section of state law referenced above is language detailing duties of county court clerks in the death registration process. With the repeal of this section on November 1st, county court clerks will no longer have these duties.
What Does This Mean?
Beginning November 1st, there will no longer be a “local registrar and county court clerk option” for registering vital records. All paper death certificates will have to be sent directly to the Vital Records
Division offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or McAlester for registration.
Why the Change?
The local registrar option has produced a number of problems over the years. Among these include:
The process results in a higher number of errors that are sometimes not identified and, therefore, further results in certified copies of records that have errors on them. The certified copy of the record does not look like certified copies produced at Vital Records. Therefore, the record is not always accepted initially. Not every county has a health department office, meaning they either don’t have a local registrar or one has to be appointed from the private sector.
How Does ROVER Fit In?
With the implementation of ROVER there will be no need for local registrars and county court
and turn left, jogging briefly to the right. Follow the aroma from the Snack Bar if you are unsure. B-10 is located across the hall from the Snack Bar.
We appreciate your cooperation and patience during this transition. If you have questions please call the Death Desk at 405.271.5108.
The funeral home window has moved downstairs. We will begin servicing all requests for filing and issuance of death certificates in Room B-10.
You will continue to pay for all applications on the first floor at the same accounting window as before. When finished with payment, please proceed to the
elevators located to the south of the accounting window. Badges will be issued by Vital Records for access to this area. If you have not yet been issued a badge, please stop at the security desk to check in. You will be issued a visitors badge.
Enter the elevator and go to the basement. Exit the elevator
ROVER System Requirements
For the system to run at optimal performance, your computer should have the following features:
Internet Explorer 6.0 or later Adobe Acrobat Reader Laser Printer Broadband Internet Connection
ROVER
Training and Enrollment Team
Electronic Death Registration
Laurie Howard
ROVER Project Manager
Mikeal Murray
Health Education Coordinator
Jan Bohannon
Field Representative
Sherrie Thrower
Field Representative
Jennifer Gilmore
Death Registration Coordinator
ROVER HELP DESK
E-mail: AskROVER@health.ok.gov
Phone: 405.271.5308
E-mails are preferred OCME Has a New Chief
Dr. Eric Pfeifer is the new Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Oklahoma. He started his employment here in May 2011 and comes to the Sooner State from Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Pfeifer worked for many years as the Olmsted County Medical Examiner and as a Forensic Pathologist with the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Pfeifer was born in Baltimore, Maryland and received his educational training in Atlanta, Georgia; graduate level training at the Ruhr Universitaet Bachum, Germany; and his M.D. from the Medical College of Augusta Georgia in 1993. From there he completed
an internship and residence in Georgia and did his Fellowship in Autopsy Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Pfeifer is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and Forensic Pathology. In his career he has performed more than 3000 autopsies and certified more than 10,000 deaths. Dr. Pfeifer has three children, two girls and one boy, who still live in Minnesota.
Don’t Forget the Instructional Handouts
As Jan and Sherrie travel around setting up funeral homes and training their people to use ROVER, they are supplying step-by-step instructions on how to enter case information. This includes detailed instructions on what choices to make on Tab 10 - Case Actions and where these choices are located. Please, do not forget about these instructions. Entering information properly on Tab 10 tells ROVER what to do next with the record. Entering information “improperly” on Tab 10 confuses ROVER, makes it angry, and causes it to hang on to the record.
If you have any questions and/or doubts about entering information into ROVER, it is best to contact us first for assistance instead of trying to figure it out on your own. We can fix any situation that needs corrected, but it may take longer and be quite involved. If we can help you get it right the first time, the record can breeze through ROVER and be registered more quickly.
1000 NE 10th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73117
ROVER Helpline: 405-271-5380
ROVER Fax Local: 405-271-1235
ROVER Fax Toll Free: 877-885-7470
ROVER E-mail: AskROVER@health.ok.gov
We Collect, Analyze, and Disseminate Health Statistics to Help Create a State of Health.
OSDH is on the web at www.health.ok.gov
Center for Health Statistics
ATTACH MAILING LABEL HERE.
Death Certificates Available at New Tulsa Site
Taken from www.tulsa-health.org
As of June 6th, the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Tulsa Division of Vital Records moved to a new location at:
James Goodwin Health Center
5051 South 129th East Ave
Tulsa, OK 74134
(918)594-4840
(918)594-4868 (FAX)
8:30 am - 4:00 pm Monday - Friday
Phone service available from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Please Send Us Your E-mail Address
To be as efficient and inclusive as possible with our mass communications, we are collecting as many e-mail addresses as we can. Please send your e-mail address to AskROVER@health.ok.gov. Also, please let us know if the e-mail address we may have for you needs changing or updating. Thank you.
Dr. Eric Pfeifer, the new Chief Medical Examiner for the Office of the State Medical Examiner.