Funeral home backlog caused by state’s switch

PHOENIX — Funeral directors, physicians and government officials are struggling to start Arizona’s new online system to register deaths and generate death certificates, creating a backlog of bodies at funeral homes that prompted one health official to warn that the county could be forced to use refrigerated-truck storage.

Some funeral directors have had to delay burying and cremating because of confusion and technical problemssincethestatedepartment of Health Services’ new databasewentliveoct.2.thedatabase replaced a fax-based system.

The department acknowledged there have been problems and delays, and it has allowed the counties that include Phoenix and Tucson and a third county, Cochise, to use paper records to obtain processing permits for burials and cremations.

“You know there are going to be bumps with a new (information technology) system,” said Dr. Cara Christ, the department’s director. “We knew there were some issues. The vendors have responded very quickly.”

Dr. Bob England, Maricopa County’s public health director, told state officialsinanoct.8emailthatthere were fears that funeral homes could exceed capacity and that the county might have to activate a mass-fatality plan to use refrigerator-truck storage in a vacant lot across the street from the medical examiner’s office.

“That would be highly visible.

We’ll be wheeling bodies back and forth across 8th Avenue, need to re-route the Juror Parking, and it will become a national news story,” England said in the email.

A survey completed Tuesday by Maricopa County officials found more than 200 delayed burials and cremations and indicated that 20 of 54 funeral homes weren’t accepting additional bodies. But state officials said they found only six of 183 funeral homes statewide at capacity and 12 families who experienced delays.

Stateofficialssaidtheysought thenewsystemtomakeiteasierfor people to order vital records, including birth and death certificates. The plan is to allow the vital records to be ordered online rather than in person at a government office.

Implementation of the new system changed how physicians certify deaths and the way funeral homes obtain permits for burials and cremations.