§ 5202. Report of death; death certificate; duties of licensed health care professional
(a)(1) Within 24 hours after a death, the licensed health care professional who last attended a deceased person shall submit the medical portion of a report of death in a manner prescribed by the State Registrar. If the licensed health care professional who attended the death is unable to state the cause of death, he or she shall immediately notify the licensed health care professional, if any, who was in charge of the patient's care, and he or she shall fulfill this requirement.
(2) If neither health care professional is able to state the cause of death, the provisions of section 5205 of this title apply.
(3) The licensed health care professional may delegate to the funeral director or the person in charge of the body, with that individual's consent, the responsibility of completing the nonmedical portion of the report of death.
(4) The State Registrar shall furnish the agency responsible for veterans' affairs information as to the deceased's status as a veteran.
(5) The State Registrar shall register the report of death in the Statewide Registration System upon receipt of the required information. The portion of the report of death that is not confidential under section 5014 of this title is the death certificate.
(b) When a death certificate is not available prior to burial or transportation of a body, any licensed health care professional who has access to the facts and can certify that the death is not subject to the provisions of section 5205 of this title may complete and sign a preliminary report of death on a form prescribed by the State Registrar. The health care professional may delegate completion of the nonmedical facts to any funeral director or person in charge of the body with access to the nonmedical facts, with that individual's consent. A person authorized to issue a burial-transit permit shall accept a properly completed preliminary report and issue a burial-transit permit. The preliminary report may be destroyed six months after the death certificate has been registered. This subsection does not relieve a licensed health care professional from his or her responsibilities under subsection (a) of this section. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 27, eff. March 1, 1961; 1963, No. 102, § 2, eff. May 22, 1963; 1969, No. 265 (Adj. Sess.), § 10; 1979, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 26; 1997, No. 40, § 22b.; 2009, No. 151 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. Jan. 1, 2012; 2017, No. 46, § 47, eff. July 1, 2019.)