NAC440.165. Statement of the cause of death.

     1. The statement of the cause of death in a medical certificate of death must be:

     (a) Written legibly; and

     (b) Expressed clearly and concisely.

     2. The State Registrar or local registrar shall return a medical certificate of death to the certifier to be corrected or made more definite if the statement:

     (a) Consists of only the term “natural causes”;

     (b) Contains any other indefinite or obsolete term which denotes only the symptom of a disease or the conditions resulting from a disease;

     (c) Is illogically or confusingly written; or

     (d) Contains personal abbreviations or is written in shorthand.

     3. Part I of the statement of the cause of death in the standard certificate of death approved by the United States Public Health Service may contain only the sequence of disease or the injury or other trauma directly resulting in death, as follows:

     (a) Line “A” must show the immediate (primary) cause of death;

     (b) Line “B” must show the contributory or intermediate cause of death; and

     (c) Line “C” must show the underlying cause of death.

Ê The underlying cause of death must be the last cause listed. If there is no intermediate cause, the underlying cause must be entered on line “B”. If the immediate cause and the underlying cause are synonymous, only one entry is necessary.

     4. Part II of the statement of the cause of death must show the diseases, injuries or other factors which are medically or statistically significant but not directly related to the cause of death.

     5. The statement of the cause of death must be submitted electronically by the certifier to an electronic death registry system approved by the Division of Public and Behavioral Health of the Department of Health and Human Services and attested to by the certifier by means of an electronic signature.

     6. As used in this section, “electronic signature” means an electronic sound, symbol or process attached to or logically associated with a document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document.

     (Added to NAC by Bd. of Health, eff. 12-3-84; A by R126-12, 2-20-2013)