TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas residents still may have to wait up to four weeks to get copies of birth certificates and other records, but the state Department of Health and Environment said Thursday that it has resolved recent computer problems.
Secretary Rod Bremby said the department has restored its electronic data, including 20 million copies of birth, death and marriage certificates and other vital statistics records. But its vital statistics records system is still being tested and won’t be back online until at least Monday.
Meanwhile, Bremby said, the department faces a backlog of 8,000 requests for records from its vital statistics office and plans to temporarily double the staff processing them. He also said the department’s private computer vendor has agreed to eat more than $750,000 in costs associated with resolving the problems.
The hardware for the department’s electronic records storage crashed Aug. 5, taking down 85 percent of its servers and cutting off access to electronic records. The problems came as some parents were seeking copies of birth certificates needed to enroll children in school.
The department has prided itself on handling records requests relatively quickly, often the same day for someone seeking a copy of a birth certificate in person at the agency’s Topeka offices.
Jenni Stauffer came from Auburn, outside Topeka, to get a copy of the birth certificate for her 6-week-old son, Deacon, so they can fly to California next week to visit family. She left the vital statistics office without a copy, wondering whether the airline will instead accept a letter from the hospital in which he was born.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas residents still may have to wait up to four weeks to get copies of birth certificates and other records, but the state Department of Health and Environment said Thursday that it has resolved recent computer problems.
Secretary Rod Bremby said the department has restored its electronic data, including 20 million copies of birth, death and marriage certificates and other vital statistics records. But its vital statistics records system is still being tested and won’t be back online until at least Monday.
Meanwhile, Bremby said, the department faces a backlog of 8,000 requests for records from its vital statistics office and plans to temporarily double the staff processing them. He also said the department’s private computer vendor has agreed to eat more than $750,000 in costs associated with resolving the problems.
The hardware for the department’s electronic records storage crashed Aug. 5, taking down 85 percent of its servers and cutting off access to electronic records. The problems came as some parents were seeking copies of birth certificates needed to enroll children in school.
The department has prided itself on handling records requests relatively quickly, often the same day for someone seeking a copy of a birth certificate in person at the agency’s Topeka offices.
Jenni Stauffer came from Auburn, outside Topeka, to get a copy of the birth certificate for her 6-week-old son, Deacon, so they can fly to California next week to visit family. She left the vital statistics office without a copy, wondering whether the airline will instead accept a letter from the hospital in which he was born.
