Kentucky Violent Death Reporting System

Abstract Background The Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH), police, coroners, medical examiners, College of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) at the University of Kentucky (UK) have collaborated in submitting this proposal to maintain and, in some areas, expand the Kentucky Violent Death Reporting System (KYVDRS). Purpose Since initial funding September 1, 2004, data on between 886-1350 cases each year have been entered into the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). It is proposed that for each of the next five years data on an estimated 1,100 to 1,300 statewide violent death cases will be entered into the NVDRS, as defined by funding announcement CDC- RFA-CE224 from all required data sources, and in most cases additional data sources. Outcomes The statewide violent death reporting system for Kentucky builds upon ongoing experience with the NVDRS. Relationships developed with key stakeholders along with knowledge gained from experience in violence surveillance since 2004 give the KYVDRS a foundation to expand into new areas and perform more advanced data analysis with the compilation of more years of data. Timeliness of reporting and data quality will continue to be improved as data becomes more available electronically and imports utilized. Case information will be augmented, beyond death scene investigations, by continuing to link KYVDRS cases with the Kentucky Emergency Management System data, Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) system, Emergency Department data and other statewide datasets, now available to the KIPRC. KYVDRS staff will work to streamline data collection from each of its primary sources to reduce the burden of data collection, make the KYVDRS more sustainable, improve data quality, respond to data requests and expand data dissemination.