Oct 3, 2020 3 min read

Pennsylvania has a rich and storied history. But too often it seems stuck in the past.

There’s our antiquated system of state liquor stores that hearkens back to the days of Prohibition. And our infrastructure, in many places, is ill-equipped to face the demands of the 2020s, having seemingly not been upgraded since the days when everybody was doing the Twist and Jack Paar was hosting “The Tonight Show.”

And then there’s the way Pennsylvania reports deaths. Now, you would think that reporting deaths is a mostly academic exercise and doesn’t demand much in the way of haste, because the dead are going to remain dead. But reporting by the Spotlight PA news, an investigative service, has revealed that Pennsylvania’s relatively poky pace when it comes to reporting deaths can be a hindrance during a pandemic like the one we have been enduring for the last six months. Having the most up-to-the-minute data can help officials track outbreaks and protect the uninfected, health care workers and first responders.

Robert Anderson, who leads the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, told Spotlight PA, “The earlier we can get information on mortality, the quicker we can develop interventions.”

Much of the problem centers on the fact that Pennsylvania has, until recently, been relying on outmoded methods to report deaths described as “cumbersome.” Those methods have included fax machines and manual data entry. To help pick up the pace of reporting, Pennsylvania put in place the Electronic Death Registration System in 2016. It allows coroners, funeral directors, physicians and others to submit data directly.

So far, so good.

But, up until the pandemic, state officials were apparently relaxed about its implementation. Since using the system was largely voluntary, this meant that some officials sidestepped it and kept doing things the way they had always done them. This is part of the reason why there have been unusual spikes in the number of coronavirus deaths reported in Pennsylvania on some days, as fatalities that are weeks or months-old have been added to the tally.

Some county coroners, including those in Armstrong, Somerset and Bedford, have even refused to participate in training on the system.

Nate Wardle, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, explained that the “department has been focused on continuous quality improvement.” Eventually, all counties will probably be part of the system. But the pandemic has made it clear officials in Harrisburg should have been more aggressive in mandating that everyone use the Electronic Death Registration System long ago.

Sure, it stands to reason that the way Pennsylvania handles death reporting would be far down on the list of concerns had it not been for the pandemic. But it must be added to the inventory of ways Pennsylvania lags behind other states. We can – and should – do better.