On November 1, 2006 SLO County joined the ranks of 16 other California counties who have implemented the State's Electronic Death Registry System (EDRS). The web-based EDRS provides the ability for coroners, funeral directors, doctors and hospitals to submit requests for electronic death certificates 24 hours per day, making it more convenient for them and expediting the process of creating death certificates. This new system has many benefits including, but not limited to, the following:

• electronic creation and faster registration of death certificates;
• quick determination of the status for a pending death certificate;
• ability for physicians to remotely attest medical information by either voice, signature or FAX, eliminating the need to track down medical certifiers for signatures;
• ability for local registrars and epidemiologists to run a wide variety of reports, sorting data by age, name, cause of death, names without SSNs, adults without addresses, date of deaths, pending death certificate aging report, and more, along with data export capability.
• issuance of disposition permits in funeral homes;

Within the County Public Health Department, information may be obtained from Diedre Villarreal at 805-781-5514. Further information may be obtained from the CA EDRS website at www.edrs.us.