Death Certification - Revisiting the Primary CDC and Name Literature

Abstract

Death certification is performed by clinical physicians, physician medical examiners, and coroners. Some states also permit certification by nurses and physician assistants. The certifier enters specific disease and/or injury information on the death certificate to summarize the medical process(es) that culminated in death. These data condense a decedent's significant medical history and, in aggregate, present a year-to-year (or longer) view of disease and injury prevalence in the United States. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the umbrella organization that collects and processes all death certificate data. CDC publications are considered the primary guiding literature for completion of the medical portion of a death certificate; an expanded discussion of manner of death is provided by a National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) publication.

All certifiers should be familiar with the CDC death certification concepts; a subset of certifiers (medical examiners and coroners) will also have a working knowledge of the NAME death certification concepts. Inevitably, there will be incremental drift in an individual's practice over time. This work intends to succinctly restate the current rules of death certification as defined by the CDC and, to a lesser degree, as interpreted by NAME. Gaps are also identified. This work is not a comprehensive review of the many nuances or special circumstances of death certification.

Keywords

Forensic pathology Death certification Cause of death Manner of death

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Medical Examiners’ and Coroners’ Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting. Hyattsville (MD): Department of Health and Human Services (US), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics; 2003. 138 p.

Physicians’ Handbook on Medical Certification of Death. Hyattsville (MD): Dept. of Health and Human Services (US), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics; 2003. 65 p.

Hanzlick

, Hunsaker

J.C.

, Davis

G.J.

A Guide for Manner of Death Classification. Marceline (MO): National Association of Medical Examiners; 2002. 29 p.

Hanzlick

R.L.

, editor. Cause of Death and the Death Certificate: Important Information for Physicians, Coroners, Medical Examiners, and the Public. Northfield (IL): College of American Pathologists; 2006. 235 p.

Hanzlick

R.L.

Handbook of Forensic Pathology; Froede

R.C.

, editor. 2nd ed. Northfield (IL): College of American Pathologists; c2003. Chapter 4, Medical certification of death and cause-of-death statements; p. 31–48.

Hanzlick

R.L.

Basic Competencies in Forensic Pathology: A Forensic Pathology Primer; Prahlow

J.A.

, editor. Northfield (IL): College of American Pathologists; c2006. Chapter 5, Death certification; p. 23–32.