Who is responsible for filing the certificate of death if a physician was not in attendance?

The responsibility for filing the certificate of death when a physician was not in attendance ultimately falls to the funeral director. In Washington, if a physician is not present to certify the death, the funeral director takes on the duty of ensuring that the death certificate is completed and submitted to the appropriate authorities. This is part of the funeral director's role in managing the practicalities surrounding the deceased, including compliance with legal requirements regarding the documentation of death.

While the next of kin may be involved in providing necessary information or could assist in communication, it is the funeral director who formally files the death certificate. The coroner or medical examiner typically gets involved in cases where an autopsy is required or if there are questions about the cause of death, but they do not have the responsibility for filing the certificate in the absence of a physician. The local registrar is the entity where the death certificate is filed, but they do not take on the responsibility of initiating that filing; that remains with the funeral director.

This distinction clarifies the critical role of the funeral director in the vital statistics process when a physician's attendance has not occurred.