When it comes to getting critical records, many Floridians are having to cope with delays.
We are referring to the state’s online vital statistics system, which stores birth and death certificates. It crashed last Thursday and remained unavailable until Wednesday morning, almost a week later, causing panic at establishments such as funeral homes.
The Florida Department of Health responded to Local 10 News late on Wednesday afternoon, stating that there “have been temporary outages of the online Vital Statistics system following a potential cyber incident.”
“The Department is coordinating with law enforcement and all relevant stakeholders,” the statement continued. AND, “Any effected parties will be notified as a comprehensive assessment of the situation is completed. The majority of Department systems and services remain operational with no disruptions.”
Funeral homes and cremation services are delicate businesses that have been impacted by the situation. A death certificate is required before a body can be burned.
The procedure has stagnated in the absence of the online system that swiftly connected funeral homes with medical facilities and the health department to facilitate the rapid submission, signature, and issuance of death certificates.
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A number of certificates are experiencing delays, and some that were issued before to Thursday’s outage could not even be accessible.
“After the cat and mouse game between us and the doctorās office and then we have to now run it to the health department, you may be talking, two, to three weeks…or longer,” Terry Wright with Wright & Young Funeral Home stated. “Some of the families need the death certificates because they have situations as far as insurance policies, some of them have situations as far as bank accounts, mutual funds, theyāre trying to tie up loose ends for family business. Death certificates are essential when it comes to the death of a loved one.”
There’s been no word on when the system will be operational again.
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