Birth, death notices now done electronically

The Nevada Office of Vital Statistics announced Tuesday for the first time, it has joined many other states in being able to send vital event data such as birth and death certificates automatically and electronically through an application named STEVE.

STEVE, the State and Territorial Exchange of Vital Events, is a messaging application for the electronic exchange of vital event data between states, including birth and death certificates. STEVE replaces the current, less secure practice of exchanging paper copies and line lists via fax or mail. STEVE is also the new conduit for state reporting of statistical data to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

STEVE provides a secure, electronic method for the State of Nevada to exchange with the other states the birth, death and fetal death records that occur in Nevada for statistical and research purposes. Death records are also sent to the jurisdiction of the decedent’s birth for fraud prevention (to match and mark the birth record “deceased”). The governance for this exchange of vital event information has been administered by the National Association of Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) using the Inter-Jurisdictional Exchange (IJE) Agreement.

Benefits of STEVE include:

• Exchanging information electronically in seconds instead of in weeks through paper-based processes.

• Recording events that occurred to Nevada residents, irrespective of where the births and deaths occurred to improve the ability to evaluate crucial public health issues, to accurately calculate population estimates, and to purge benefit, election and other rolls.

• Improving the instances of birth/death cross matching through more timely receipt of out-of-state death information to decrease the use of birth certificates for the creation of false identities.

For more information about the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, go to: http://health.nv.gov.