COLOMBIA – Some funeral homes in South Carolina are delaying cremations because of a problem with a new state computer system that prevented them from obtaining a death certificate, complicating plans for bereaved families, funeral directors said Tuesday. market.
Amid the build-up, one of the Midlands’ biggest funeral homes hired a refrigerated trailer to ensure that the deceased are “properly cared for” while waiting for the paperwork.
A second mobile morgue may be necessary if cremations cannot happen soon, said Greg Dunbar, manager of Dunbar Funeral Home, which has three locations in Columbia.
In South Carolina, cremations require a license from the local coroner. For this, the funeral home must provide a death certificate certified by the state public health agency, along with other documents. Not having a printed copy of the death certificate puts families’ plans on hold.
The problem is a January 4 systems switch at the Department of Vital Statistics in the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The software revision was supposed to “strengthen security and improve the overall user experience”, while altering the appearance of birth and death certificates, according to a December 18 press release about the impending change.
The cause of the problem of obtaining death certificates with the new system is not clear. A DHEC spokeswoman did not immediately respond to complaints on Tuesday.
The point is not to prevent traditional burials, as they do not require a death certificate.
But “100 percent of the families we serve are experiencing some delays,” said Representative Mark Smith, R-Charleston, owner of McAlister-Smith Funeral and Cremation, which has six locations in Charleston, Berkeley and Orangeburg counties.
This is because a certified death certificate is necessary for families to initiate post-death legalities, such as probate court and life insurance. Smith declined to estimate how many families his locals are helping with the delays.
“We were blessed” to not have to buy or rent any additional space, said Smith.
On Wednesday, Dunbar’s funeral alone may have more than two dozen families waiting for a death certificate, his manager said, noting that family commitments continue.
Typically, the internal cooling capacities of your locations are sufficient. But rent became necessary as of last Friday, he said, because of the unfortunate combination of failing to obtain a DHEC death certificate and an increase in deaths in general, whether from COVID-19 or any other.
He refused to estimate when a second rent would be needed.
“We have kept refrigeration in our funeral homes for years. Of course, they are reaching maximum capacity, ”he said. “We are trying to ensure that we offer the care that we guarantee to the families that we provide to your loved ones.”
State Representative John King, director of Christopher King’s Funeral Home in Chester, said the new DHEC system is not bad. It might even make things easier after people get the hang of it, but there should have been a period of integration and training, he said.
“Now the twists have not been resolved and we cannot print death certificates,” said Democrat Rock Hill, adding that his small business is awaiting an impression.
King plans to obtain reimbursement from the state for funeral homes such as Dunbar, which have spent money on refrigeration trucks and other equipment.
The timing of the change in the DHEC system has exacerbated problems across the state, said Brad Evans, president of the state’s Association of Funeral Directors.
“Whenever you have a whole new system and a pandemic going on, it’s never a good time for a big change,” said the owner of Harris Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Abbeville.
The huge agency tasked with responding to the world’s worst health crisis in a century has a variety of other functions, which it has managed without a permanent director since June.
Evans said the timing was dictated by the termination of DHEC’s contract with the software vendor and a statewide procurement process that is anything but fast.
The system is used by doctors, funeral directors and coroners. Ideally, all user information, including medical license numbers and electronic signatures, would have been transferred without problems.
But computer reviews are rarely smooth, especially in the midst of a crisis that distracts users, said Evans, adding that he believes that many doctors were too overwhelmed to deal with COVID-19 to see DHEC’s email notification. .
Some regions of the state were able to resume printing of death certificates last week, he said.
The problems appear to be worse in urban areas, where there are large hospitals with many doctors, he said, adding that he managed to get two death certificates on Tuesday morning at his local health office in Greenwood.
“It caused some confusion. It caused frustration. It stopped the flow of things,” said Evans. “It is a multifaceted problem.”
But he did not blame the Vital Statistics division.
“They are doing everything they can to repair everyone’s problems. This is just not happening very quickly, ”he said. “They are really trying. Today, this year, is not a good time to transfer systems, but they had no choice.”
