The Nation’s Need for a Great Vital Statistics System Jennifer Madans National Center for Health Statistics

NCHS’ 50th Anniversary 1960: Vital Statistics and the national health care surveys come together to form NCHS The vision then: the nation needs health statistics that go from birth to death and cover everything in between The vision now: the nation needs health statistics that go from birth to death and cover everything in between (just faster!)

We’re excited! Historic opportunity to strengthen the National Vital Statistics System We’ve been meeting with NAPHSIS to improve the VSCP and the National System NCHS, NAPHSIS and the jurisdictions will all benefit

Rebuilding the Partnership to Build the System Major thanks to Steve for his vision and perseverance Major thanks to Garland, Isabelle, Linette, Trish, Charlie, Chuck, Delton and Rajesh for committing to rebuilding Not only can we get from Good to Great – we can establish a solid foundation for future greatness

Vital Statistics are the cornerstone of a comprehensive set of data collection activities to monitor the Nation’s health All developed countries have them All countries that do not – want them Now, more than ever, data are critical for decision-making in this era of health reform The Nation’s Need for Timely and Accurate National Data

Federal statistical community: Used by Census Bureau to calculate population estimates used by all agencies Department of HHS: Used to set and track objectives for Healthy People and other initiatives Other Public and Private Sector users: For planning & evaluation & myriad of uses Vital Statistics Data are of Critical Importance to…

Comparable data – without it there is no national data system Timely data releases High data quality including improved documentation of data quality evaluations User friendly data access (within statutory and policy constraints) What NCHS is needs to meet constituent’s needs

How do we get there? Build systems At all levels of the partnership (jurisdictions, NAPHSIS and NCHS) For all aspects of the process (collection, editing, processing, analysis and release) Institutionalize best practices

Strengthening the partnership with NAPHSIS and jurisdictions Dedicating increased personnel and monetary resources to the effort Ed will talk more later about how the President’s 2011 budget request positions us to do even more NCHS is Committed to Going from Good to Great

The Beginnings of Greatness Even as we build, there are some real accomplishments that we should tell the world about --Steve’s sparklies These address the overarching objectives of timeliness, quality, utility and systems developments

The Beginnings of Greatness Timeliness Preliminary 2009 natality report released in December 2010 Preliminary 2009 mortality report released in December 2010 Selected Indicators released quarterly: Estimates for Jan – March 2011 released July 2011

The Beginnings of Greatness Data quality Institutionalize actions to improve quality: training, best practices Ongoing evaluation of items and publishing findings Quality control early and often

The Beginnings of Greatness System Improvement Best practices and standards to improve quality, accountability Indicators to measure process and improvement Practices to respond to unexpected constraints Automate what can be automated as early in the process as possible

The Beginnings of Greatness Building for the future Support projects that push the envelope Fact and cause of death sent daily from participating states Surveillance projects with participating states Increase awareness of the system as well as the data Best practices/certification of systems

Data briefs Are preterm births on the decline in the US? International Ranking Death in the United States, 2007 The First Sparklies