The Mississippi State Department of Health, Office of Vital Records (MSDH-VR) launched an Electric Death Registration System (EDRS) in June 2017. The primary purpose of an EDRS is to provide on-line access so that decedent fact-of-death and cause-of-death information can be registered electronically by multiple death registration participants and not have to complete a piece of paper. Participation in EDRS is a requirement of MSDH-VR, and UMMC transitioned to the electronic process on November 1, 2021. 

Upon patient death, the EDRS process is as follows: 

• Nursing staff completes Patient Death flowsheet in Epic. It must be completed before the patient can be transferred/discharged to the morgue.
• Message is generated to HIM.
• HIM clerk initiates EDRS case and assigns to provider listed in death flowsheet (Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.). HIM will assign EDRS cases that were submitted after hours when they return for normal business hours. 
• Once case is initiated, provider receives notice from EDRS system via Outlook to complete death certificate. 
• Case is closed. 

Reminders:

• Per state law, only physician providers are permitted to sign the death certificate, as such nurse practitioners should not be listed in the "physician pronounced by" field. 
• Checklist and the paper death certificate have been removed from the paper death packet. Paper death certificates should not be used. Please remove paper death certificates from nursing units. 
• If flowsheet is not complete prior to discharge, an alert will appear indicating that this step has not been completed and will not allow discharge until completed. 

Welcome EMMI! EMMI, a Wolters Kluewer product, is our new patient education vendor replacing our long term vendor, Truven. Beginning November 15th, staff can begin utilizing EMMI for patient instructions. Here is what you can expect from EMMI: 

• 3,600+ adult and pediatric medication topics
• 4,000+ disease, condition procedure, natural product, discharge instructions, lab tests, OT/PT, dental topics, and healthy living leaflets
• Evidence-based
• Available in up to 19 languages 
• Easy to read and written at a 5th-7th grade reading level 
• Supports the teach back method
• Detailed illustrations
• Coded to ICD-10

For a tip sheet on using the new patient education product and adding education content to the AVS, click here. 

Vaccine administration is quick and easy with QR scanning. Scanning the QR code will populate all of the required documentation at once, making entering the information a one step process. It will not leave blanks in your documentation like the linear barcode. The QR code pulls in the Lot#, NDC, Product, Manufacturer and Exp. Date.

Please see the illustration below: