Death Certification Lecture

If the attending physician will not be available to sign the death record of a deceased patient, another physician associated with case or with the facility must sign the record

An attending physician can certify nature death

A medical examiner/ coroner can certified deaths that are not natural causes

Immediate cause of death is the final disease, injury or complication directly causing death

Underlying cause of death is the disease or injury initiated the chain of events that led directly and inevitavble to death.

The physiological derangement produced by the cause of death that results in death