Fact of Death Exchange

The Fact of Death Exchange topic focuses on the standardized electronic exchange of verified patient death information between Vital Records Offices (VROs), healthcare providers, public health agencies, Immunization Information Systems (IIS), and other authorized organizations. The goal is to improve the timely and accurate communication of a patient's death status to reduce inappropriate outreach, improve data quality, support public health operations, maintain accurate longitudinal records, and enable consistent workflows across jurisdictions. Discussion includes FHIR implementation guides, event notification, identity matching, patient reconciliation, jurisdictional and cross-jurisdiction exchange, privacy and legal considerations, authorization policies, workflow triggers, and the broader use of death notifications throughout the healthcare and public health ecosystem.