Introduction by attendees.
Opening statements by Ron Williams.
Review of minutes from December 5, 1995 TAG meeting.

Main purpose of this meeting is review and discussion of AMRs (AVSS Modification Requests).
Next AVSS release will be at the end of this calendar year. Future AVSS releases will relate to calendar years rather fiscal years.
The last of the AMRs for the next AVSS release will be included in this meeting for discussion
Review of attendees from last AVSS TAG meeting on December 5, 1995.
Review of activities in California LRDs, including birth records, death records, confidential morbidity reporting, census tracting, and abstracts, birth and death. The request was made that each LRD review the activities the AVSS Project has listed and contact the AVSS Project if corrections need to be made.
Birth Abstracts - if any LRD would like to begin doing birth abstracts, approval needs to be obtained through Rod Palmieri's office.
Census tracting - would like to establish more of a relationship with DM-Info to do small counties. Invitation was extended to DM-Info to attend this TAG meeting.
AVSS contacts - The request was made that each LRD review the system managers and/or contacts the AVSS Project has listed and contact the AVSS Project if corrections need to be made.
Review of LRDs and hospitals within LRDs on AVSS. Majority of hospitals are using AVSS.
Site-of-care birth certificate system is being maintained by Bill Craddock in San Francisco,
San Mateo, Yolo, and Santa Clara counties.
Review of 9 factors to consider when evaluating AMRs by the AVSS Project and Technical Advisory Group (TAG).
AVSS file structure and data flow. Explanation and flow chart of steps involved in entering and maintaining records entered into AVSS.

AMRs - review of AVSS Modification Requests submitted since the last AVSS upgrade for consideration and discussion.
Confidential Morbidity Reporting.
The update to the Weekly Place of Report form will be done by dialing into each LRD individually.
John Williamson (916-327-6958) attended the meeting in the afternoon.
A pilot test of the new CMR form needs to be done before AVSS will be approached. Volunteers by LRDs were requested to test new form. Pam Isaac of Humboldt County indicated interest. Please contact John Williamson or John Hastings (916-327-0931) if anyone else is interested.
The revision of the CMR form has one more draft. Release is expected in 15-30 days from today. Form will be FAXable, unlike current card being used at this time.
An inquiry to LRDs was made regarding interest in a CONFIRMED, DELETED, or PENDING field on new the CMR form. Please contact John Williamson or John Hastings if interested.
An inquiry to LRDs was made regarding interest in a sub-field for diseases to enter a subspecies or serotype for any disease. If a "pick list" is required, then possibly providing a unique "Other" disease for serotyping. Please contact John Williamson or John Hastings if interested. This suggestion relates to a previous AMR (93-086) submitted by Larry Portigal from Los Angeles County. Larry Portigal and Mike Tormey will be compiling a list of diseases. Contact Larry Portigal at 213-240-7785 for any questions regarding this list.
AVSS and barcoding.
Santa Clara County:
Works well in their county.
Bette Ingle explained process of receiving certificates from hospital, setting up printer, printing the barcodes, then registering certificates.
Affidavits are hand-numbered.
Los Angeles County:
Works well in their county.
Minor hardware problems but they have all been resolved.
NANA - Newborn Automatic Number Assignment.
Forty-three (43) counties are participating.
Next counties to be implemented are Lake and Colusa.
A select number of hospitals (30) in Los Angeles county have begun using NANA.
Some post offices will deliver cards to P.O. Box numbers but it is totally dependent on each post office to decide.
OVR transfers the first complete record to DSB. LRDs are encouraged to use INCOMPLETE RECORD REPORT to check for and complete any incomplete records.
Michele Yepez can be contacted with any questions about NANA at 916-322-5179. At present, she receives about 3-4 calls per day from LRDs and hospitals.
The questionnaire which AVSS and Los Angeles county developed to assess the efficiency of hospitals and their staff may be more widely used to determine potential success of other hospitals wanting to use NANA. This questionnaire has been successful in pinpointing trouble spots.
Amendments.
Each LRD is responsible for entering amendments.
After a copy has been returned from the state, it is entered. It is considered official only when it comes from the state.
Birth certificates and fraud.
INS uncover about 500 cases per year for the entire country.
In May of 1996, there were 3300 cases of fraud in California alone. If fraud is suspected by any LRD, contact Ida Biones at 915-564-2140.
Abstracts are being less accepted as proof of birth. Deborah Martin will review the possibility of adding more items to abstracts. Passport applications require more documentation as to proof of birth.
Death Record.
Twenty-nine (29) counties are using the AVSS death record registration.
Reallocation for death records are expected to begin within the next few weeks.
LRDs not using AVSS death registration:
Long Beach - doesn't have staff required to do data entry.
San Diego - possibly next year. This county uses an OCR system.
Fresno - wants to download data to AVSS from CME system.
For Immunization Registry, it is important to be able to link births and deaths. Infant deaths are important to enter.
Real-time death registration. An inquiry to LRDs was made regarding interest in volunteering to implement this model. An LRD must have an experienced AVSS System Manager and hardware resources. Please contact Ron Williams.
AVSS and Networking. No LRDs are on a network yet. Cost vs. benefit of installing must be considered. Some LRDs are transporting AVSS output files using peer-to-peer network links. No LRDs are using client-server at present.

Updated September 16, 1996 by RL Williams
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