Crisis In The State Medical Examiner's Tulsa Office

Staffers with the state medical examiner are overworked and underpaid, when you compare them with other medical examiner's nationwide. The agency says it's getting positive feedback from legislators,

Wednesday, May 24th 2006, 10:56 am

By: News On 6

Staffers with the state medical examiner are overworked and underpaid, when you compare them with other medical examiner's nationwide. The agency says it's getting positive feedback from legislators, who are considering a $1.5-million increase to the ME's budget.

News on 6 anchor Tami Marler shows us why it's needed.

â€œThe trend has been mostly a substantial increase in the case load, and the resources have become more and more limited." Scott Evans recently left his job as operations manager at the medical examiner's Tulsa office after nearly ten years. "Not only do you deal with the long hours and the lack of sleep, the lack of free time, but you're constantly dealing with things that are depressing. Things that most of us, as human beings, don't want to deal with."

Evans says in his tenure, the Tulsa staff went from 20 employees, to a dozen, with hundreds more deaths. Two doctors and three investigators work around-the-clock to cover more than 15 counties. "With the homicide rate increasing like it has, you have courtroom preparation. You have to meet with attorneys. When a doctor has to testify in court, he can be out anywhere from a half day to three or four days, depending on the complexities of the case."

If one doctor's on vacation and the other one is in court, there's no one to conduct autopsies and families are waiting. "Their hands are tied and it's very frustrating for 'em. They want to help the families. That's what they're there for. And it's frustrating to them when they can't deliver in a timely manner."

In 2003, Oklahoma's chief medical examiner's salary was reported as $170,000. An agency in Texas is posting the same job, for between $183,000 and $293,000. The Travis County Medical Examiner performs more than 400 autopsies with three full-time examiners. The Tulsa office, does twice that number with two full-time examiners.

Oklahoma has had two pathologists' positions open for more than a year, with starting pay at $125,000.

The News on 6 spoke with the medical examiner's Chief Investigator, Kevin Rowland. He says he spent the day speaking with state legislators at the state capitol in Oklahoma City. He says all of them were receptive to the agency's funding request. Part of the money would pay for 14 additional employees and raises for existing employees.