Center for Health Statistics

The Virginia Center for Health Statistics (VCHS) compiles data annually on births, deaths, natural fetal deaths, and induced terminations of pregnancies. VCHS serves as the primary distributor of vital statistics data for Virginia.

Since the 1970s, the Center has been designated as the primary supplier of Virginia vital statistics at the federal level. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics often rely on the data the Center provides. The Center routinely submits data to the CDC, helping to present the national health care picture.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses the Center’s data on births, and deaths to keep their databases updated and purge their files. The data the Center provides helps the SSA control cost by preventing fraud and other misappropriations of funds.

The Center also coordinates with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to help keep its database of licensees current. Death files are supplied that allow DMV to remove deceased drivers from their rolls. The Center also partnered with DMV in the development of a new Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System. A grant was awarded to DMV last August that will facilitate the linkage of data from VCHS, Virginia Health Information, emergency medical services and the trauma registry with crash data at DMV. The linked data will be used to support highway safety decision-making at the local, regional and state levels. Deaths from crashes, nonfatal injuries and the health care cost resulting will be reduced from the positive influence of the initiative on the highway safety decision making at the local, regional and state levels.