Policy
All patient deaths are treated with respect, sensitivity, and dignity.
Notification of a patient's death must come from a reliable source, e.g. the police, the deceased's family, a coroner, hospital, or hospice.
Requests for records of a deceased patient must come from the executor or administrator of the estate.
See also Disclosing Patient Information.
Notification of a patient's death
After we are informed of a patient's death, advise the patient's clinician and other relevant staff as soon as possible.
It may be a good idea to add an alert to the PMS to help prevent inappropriate responses to next of kin.
Certifying a death
For more information, refer to HealthPathways: Certification of Death.
After a death, a clinician may be required to either:
The MCCD can be completed online via Death Documents or by filling out a paper form.
Any medical practitioner or nurse practitioner who completes an MCCD must also notify the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, within 3 working days of the MCCD being supplied, using a Preliminary Notice of Death (PNOD) form.
All death certificates and cremation forms must be scanned onto the patient's medical file in Indici. Hard copies must not be removed from the certificate pad because they must be kept for a minimum of 10 years.
Print Online Death Documents and scan them to file.
Death notification documents