Ensuring Timely and Accurate Death Certificate Signatures Crucial for Body Release and Reducing Funeral Expenses

Death certificates must be signed accurately and promptly to ensure bodies can be released to funeral homes and avoid adding to a family’s grief and funeral expenses.

During a webinar entitled The Role Of The Doctor In Coroner Investigations And Other Coronial Matters Of Interest on Zoom yesterday, Dr La-Tonia Arthur reminded doctors that the certificates had to be signed within 48 hours.

“A lot of the times the coroner will have to hold on releasing bodies if the medical certificate of death is not clear. Sometimes persons will indicate that they will write the certificate but then take a prolonged period.

“Once you have indicated that you are going to write a medical certificate of death, it should be done within 48 hours of the patient dying and received by the coroner’s office . . . . It is actually illegal for bodies to be buried without a warrant to bury, and you can’t issue a warrant to bury without a medical certificate of death. So we would like to improve the statistical validity of our medical certificate of death forms,” Arthur said.

Emergency care physician Dr Harold Watson, who presented a list entitled A-Z Of Causes Of Death, said although the forms can be time-consuming, they should be filled out accurately.

“The problem I have is that everyone is busy and the paperwork is somewhat laborious, especially from the coroner’s side.

“We have to realise that charges are incurred by having a body kept in a funeral home awaiting a death certificate. To me, that is an issue. As professionals we are here to serve the public and give them the best we can,” he said.

Garbage codes

Watson stressed that all of the information, including identification, full names and several items should be listed while several “garbage codes” should be avoided.

Garbage code refers to a concept introduced in the first Global Burden of Disease Study for causes that should not be considered as the underlying cause of death or are non-specific and considered insufficient.

Coroner Graveney Bannister agreed there was a need for greater efficiency and communication between funeral directors, doctors and the police.

“Quite often the undertaker will move in after the scene. I’m not informed. The undertaker has the body for some three or four days and sometimes even a week without me knowing. The problem comes when it comes to the burial and registration of the body when there is no warrant.

“The undertakers are well aware of this. I don’t know if it is a lack of knowledge or a business decision to delay the reporting of certain matters because storage fees are quite high. The longer people go on, the