2013 Vermont Statutes
Title 18 Health
Chapter 107 DEATHS, BURIALS, AUTOPSIES
§ 5202 Death certificate; duties of physician and authorized licensed health care professional

5202. Death certificate; duties of physician and authorized licensed health care professional

(a) The licensed health care professional who is last in attendance upon a deceased person shall immediately fill out a certificate of death on a form prescribed by the commissioner. For the purposes of this section, a licensed health care professional means a physician, a physician assistant, or an advance practice registered nurse. If the licensed health care professional who attended the death is unable to state the cause of death, he or she shall immediately notify the physician, if any, who was in charge of the patient's care to fill out the certificate. If the physician is unable to state the cause of death, the provisions of section 5205 of this title apply. The licensed health care professional may, with the consent of the funeral director, delegate to the funeral director the responsibility of gathering data for and filling out all items except the medical certification of cause of death. All entries, except signatures, on the certificate shall be typed or printed and shall contain answers to the following questions:

(1) Was the deceased a veteran of any war?

(2) If so, of what war?

(b) When death occurs in a hospital and it is impossible to obtain a death certificate from an attending licensed health care professional before burial or transportation, any licensed health care professional who has access to the facts and can certify that death is not subject to the provisions of section 5205 of this title may complete and sign a preliminary report of death on a form supplied by the commissioner. The municipal or county clerk or a deputy shall accept this report and issue a burial-transit permit. This preliminary report of death may be destroyed six months after a death certificate has been filed. This does not relieve the attending licensed health care professional from the responsibility of completing a death certificate and delivering it to the funeral director within 24 hours after death. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), 27, eff. March 1, 1961; 1963, No. 102, 2, eff. May 22, 1963; 1969, No. 265 (Adj. Sess.), 10; 1979, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), 26; 1997, No. 40, 22b.; 2009, No. 151 (Adj. Sess.), 6, eff. Jan. 1, 2012.)