Report 2023-110 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2023-110: California Department of Public Health: Process Improvements Could Help Reduce Delays in Completing Fetal Death Registrations (Release Date: February 2024)

Recommendation #3 To: Public Health, Department of

To reduce the time that parties involved in the fetal death registration process take to notify one another that a certificate is pending action, CDPH should, by June 2024, submit a request to its registration system vendor to develop and implement in the system an electronic notification mechanism that will alert the appropriate user outside the system, such as by email, that a certificate is awaiting that user's action.

6-Month Agency Response

CDPH Vital Records (VR) has fully implemented this recommendation. The new contract for the registration system has been signed and executed, and the vendor has planned to work on the notification mechanism in mid-2025 (see CHSI Response Support - Scope of Work - Contract Agreement.pdf). VR will be continuing and expanding on this recommendation further, by working with the vendor on the next stages to fully implement this change request.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CDPH Vital Records (VR) completed this recommendation and has already submitted a change request as part of the new scope of work for the registration system vendor to develop an electronic notification mechanism. (See Project Summary and Scope of Work.pdf) VR will be taking this recommendation further by working with staff and the vendor on the next stages to fully execute and implement this change request once the new contract is in place.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

As part of the new scope of work for its registration system, CDPH has submitted a change request to the registration system vendor to develop an electronic notification mechanism. Although CDPH states the scope of work has been vetted and approved by CDPH internal leadership and the registration system vendor, the scope of work is still under review by the California Department of Technology. As such, we conclude this recommendation is partially implemented. Once the updated scope of work is finalized, we will again assess the status of the recommendation.

All Recommendations in 2023-110

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.