EDITORIAL: Ensure coroner services for all 67 counties
Oct. 22—Aficionados of television crime dramas know that crack teams of experienced medical examiners and forensic pathologists examine each body in meticulous detail.
But in the real world, the United States has a patchwork of systems for handling and examining bodies and an extremely wide range of office resources and individual competence among personnel, depending upon the ZIP code where the individual dies. Accurate determinations of manners and causes of death should not be a matter of luck of the draw.
As revealed by a new detailed study, Pennsylvania has no uniform system for coroner operations and vast disparities in resources among county coroners' offices.
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan agency of the state Legislature, commissioned the study by researchers from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Christina VandePol, a former coroner. Unfortunately, coroners' offices in Lackawanna and Wayne counties were among a handful statewide that did not participate.
Researchers found a lack of standardized "training, education, policies, and resources among coroner and medical examiner offices," to the point that "the multiple and complex county processes and standards make standardization of death investigation and performance impossible."
Of the state's 67 counties, 62 elect coroners. Luzerne and Northampton counties appoint coroners, whereas Allegheny, Delaware and Philadelphia counties appoint medical examiners. Of 19 urban counties, 11 had at least one member of a coroner's or medical examiner's staff certified by the American Board of Medicolegal DeathInvestigators; 10 of 48 rural coroner offices had at least one certified staffer.
Researchers also found that the state has a lack of public sector forensic pathologists, medical specialists in determining causes and manners of death.
To ensure consistent high-quality services statewide, the researchers recommended several changes at the state and local levels.
The Legislature, the study recommended, should consider establishing regional medical examiner centers to ensure access for every county. And, to increase the number of available forensic pathologists, the state should forgive student loan debt for pathologists who agree to work in the public sector for a determined time, and subsidize the medical educations of prospective students in the field.
Legislators should take up the recommendations to ensure the highest-quality coroners' services throughout Pennsylvania.
