Funeral Director/Home Information

Funeral Director/Home

Funeral directors and funeral home staff are responsible for registering accurate and complete records of death. The Missouri Electronic Vital Records (MoEVR) system, operated by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services – Bureau of Vital Records, exists to support the electronic registration of vital records, such as death certificates, in Missouri.

The death certificate is a permanent legal record of the fact and cause of death and funeral directors should work with medical certifiers to obtain medical certification and register these important records. Families use these permanent legal records to settle the affairs of their loved ones and to obtain insurance, veteran, and retirement benefits, among other legal or personal purposes. As a service to the decedent’s family, a funeral director should prepare an accurate death record. This responsibility makes the funeral director a pivotal role in the death registration system.

Training Resources

Missouri Funeral Director/Home Training Guide

Missouri Electronic Vital Records (MoEVR) Training and Support

National Center for Health Statistics - Training and Instructional Materials

National Vital Statistics System

In the United States, the legal authority to register deaths lies within 57 jurisdictions (50 states, 2 cities and 5 territories). Death record information from the 57 jurisdictions is shared with the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is used to compile national mortality statistics which inform a variety of medical and health-related research efforts. Local and state public health agencies use information from the death record to assess community health status and for disease surveillance (e.g., drug overdose deaths, influenza, and other infectious diseases).

Why Go Electronic?

The benefits of being an electronically registered funeral director/home in MoEVR include:

• Quickly electronically start and register a death certificate anywhere, anytime
• Electronically send a death certificate to a medical certifier for certification with no travel time, personal contact, or mailing transit times
• Real-time prompts, edits, and mortality validations ensure both personal and medical information is not missing or incomplete delaying or preventing the registration of a death certificate
• Reduced registration lag times and decreased possibility of loss, theft, and fraud

Contact Bureau of Vital Records

The Missouri Bureau of Vital Records has field representative staff who travel the state training vital record data providers. Field staff can also arrange for telephone/web conference training calls.

If you are a vital record data provider (local county health agency, funeral home/director, hospital/licensed birthing center, county official, medical certifier, etc.) and would like to request a personalized training session or gain access to MoEVR, call 573-751-6387, option 4.