DOH Notices in GTS - Court Staff

The Death Notice Search screen is used to search death notice records provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Obtaining death information on case participants is useful when managing your cases. Death notices are updated in GTS on a monthly basis.

Keep in mind that this function should be used as one tool in researching death records for GTS case participants and it is not meant to replace the normal processes of confirming that a participant has passed away.

Searching for Death Notice Records

The death notices search uses person criteria only. To search, perform the following:

1. 

Enter criteria for the search. If using SSN, this is the only required criteria. Since the person's social security number may not be available or recorded with the Department of Health, you may wish to use other criteria for searching. If not using SSN, criteria must be entered in two of the following fields: Last Name, Date of Birth, Date of Death, or County of Death. The Last Name field requires a single character, minimally. When entering the Date of Birth or Date of Death, you must enter the date as a range. To search for a single day, enter the same date in both fields for the range.

Note: The Active Cases Within County checkbox limits search results to decedents with an active case in your county in the role of Guardian or Incapacitated Person. Using this checkbox with the Date of Death Start and End fields lets you recreate a list of matches corresponding to the Death Notice Participant Match Notifications your county received during that period.

2. 

After entering criteria, click the SEARCH button.

3. 

Records matching the search are returned in a grid. Review the search results and perform one of the following:

a. 

If the person being researched is found, review the details on the screen as needed.

b. 

If the person being researched is not found, you may try changing or removing some of the criteria used and search again. Sometimes using less search criteria can be more effective.

c. 

To being a new search, you may click the CLEAR button to being entering criteria again.

4. 

When you have finished reviewing death notices, click the CLOSE button to return to the Dashboard.

Generating the Death Records Report

After completing a search on the Death Notice Search screen, any records returned in the results grid can now also be viewed in report format. When a search produces results, the Death Records Report icon displays above the grid. Clicking this icon generates a PDF report and reflects the information displayed in the Death Notice Search search results. If the Active Cases Within County checkbox is not selected as part of your search, only participant information displays for each decedent. If the checkbox is selected as part of your search, participant and case-related information displays for each decedent.

As with other GTS reports, this format provides the opportunity to save, print, and share the report electronically as needed.

Note: This report cannot be generated from the Adhoc Reports screen.