JULY
2004
Volume 28 •
No. 7
Medical
Staff Update Cover Story:
Death
Certificates must be reviewed, signed promptly
Chief of Staff Larry Shuer has issued a reminder that residents or attending physicians must review and sign death certificates - not simply complete worksheets - within 15 hours of a hospital death.
"In the past, some physicians have assumed that because they have filled out the appropriate green worksheet and provided a signature that their obligations following the death of a patient are over," Shuer said. "However, the process is not finished until the physician reviews - and corrects if necessary - the completed death certificate which releases the body for burial or cremation.
According to state law, certificates must be signed by a physician within 15 hours of a death.
"This procedure may be inconvenient, although between the residents and attendings, this logical and necessary procedure should not be onerous. It is not unreasonable for a physician to review information that in some cases could be important in the future for epidemiological, legal or other purposes. And the bottom line always is that failure to sign a death certificate in a timely manner will likely cause unnecessary, sometimes devastating, grief for families who face delays in completing final details."
Shuer issued the reminder after the hospital's Ad Hoc Committee on Certificate of Death clarified the protocol based on review by the Department of Risk Management.
The current protocol steps are:
1. The physician fills out a green worksheet.
2. The worksheet is sent to Patient Admitting Services, where it is transferred to the Death Certificate.
3. The Death Certificate is sent back to the nursing unit secretary.
4. In
the following order, the unit secretary seeks a signature:
a. The appropriate resident.
b. The attending physician.
c. If the attending is not available, the certificate is sent to the
chief of service.
"The attending physician reviews and always has the option of sending the certificate back to Patient Admitting for corrections," Shuer noted.
Donald Regula, associate professor of pathology and director of the autopsy service is available for consultations, assistance and questions about death certificates and related matters, Shuer noted. Regula may be contacted at Donald.Regula@stanford.edu or (650) 725-5898.
Also available
for assistance is C. George Fitzgerald, the director of chaplaincy services,
who may be contacted at CFitzgerald@stanfordmed.org
or (650) 723-5101.
Death Certificates must be reviewed, signed promptly
Daylong seminar helps professionals support families facing a death
SHC offers media relations services to physicians
Wachter
talk available for viewing on
DVD/VHS
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