Importance of the Death Certificate
You may be wondering why does it take longer to cremate someone instead of burying them? In the state of Texas you are allowed to bury someone who is deceased before the doctor signs the death certificate. You are, however, not allowed to cremate anyone who is deceased until the doctor signs the death certificate in the state of Texas. The doctor is given 7 days to sign the death certificate in Texas.
The Funeral Home will have to wait until the doctor has signed the death certificate. We gather the information from our families to complete the death certificate. Once all of that information is received and the family approves that the information is correct, we send the death certificate electronically to the attending doctor that is responsible for signing it. Once the Doctor signs the death certificate we are notified via email and our then allowed to order the death certificates for the family. Once we order the death certificates we wait for them to be delivered to the funeral home, and after they are received, the family will come into the funeral home to pick them up.
Additionally, in many counties an additional permit must be filed for and received from the county that the death has occurred. This paperwork can take 24 hours to process. To avoid this problem, our Funeral Director will reach out to doctors 24 hours after we have sent them the death certificate. This will expedite the process by insisting we need it signed as soon as possible. We have found that this helps reduce the time it takes for us to complete the cremation process for a family.
Currently, the State of Texas will only allow your funeral home to order your Death Certificate through the Texas Electronic Registrar one time for a family. We do provide a link where the families can order more certificates if needed. Ordering additional Death Certificates may take up to three or four weeks to receive them. If there is an emergency and you are in an immediate need of a death certificate, we recommend that you go to your local registrar's office where you can order and receive them while you wait.
What if something is wrong with my Death Certificate?
there are two responsible parties for the information that is put on a death certificate. One is the funeral home and the other is the doctor. if anything that is incorrect on the death certificate is in regards to personal information then the funeral home would be responsible. If the death certificate is incorrect medically then it would need to be amended by the doctor who signed it. The funeral home is not able to amend any entries that the doctor made and the doctor is not allowed to change any of the entries that the funeral home made.