Staff Shortages Lead To Backlog At State Medical Examiner's Office

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state medical examiner's office needs additional funding to catch up on a backlog of cases that officials say could increase to five or six months. <br/><br/>``We need help

Saturday, May 20th 2006, 12:33 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state medical examiner's office needs additional funding to catch up on a backlog of cases that officials say could increase to five or six months.

``We need help now. It's bad,'' said Kevin Rowland, chief investigator for the office. ``We're just worn out.''

The agency, which investigates deaths and performs autopsies, is pleading with state lawmakers for an extra $1.5 million a year so it can hire additional employees, complete investigations in a timely manner and meet the needs of grieving families.

Back in 2003, office employees would tell families it would take four to six weeks to complete an investigation when the cause of death was not obvious. Now employees say it will take 12 to 16 weeks or longer. If no additional money is received, that number will increase to five to six months this fall, Rowland said.

``Not a day goes by that we don't have some crying family member call us and plead with us to hurry up an investigation,'' he said.

A death certificate can't be filed until an investigation is complete, Rowland said. Without a death certificate, estates can't be settled and life insurance benefits can't be paid.

Rowland said the office hasn't compromised the quality of its investigations, but families have suffered because of agency understaffing.

The number of deaths for which the medical examiner's office filed reports increased from 11,628 in 2003 to 15,423 in 2005. The number is expected to approach 20,000 this year, he said.

Not all those deaths required autopsies, but those have increased, also _ from nearly 1,500 in 2003 to about 1,800 in 2005.

Meanwhile, the number of pathologists working at the agency has decreased from seven to five.

``We've had two pathologists' positions open for over a year,'' Rowland said.

The agency can't fill the positions because other places are offering $17,000 to $60,000 a year more, he said.

The Oklahoma medical examiner's office starts pathologists at $125,000 a year, while Houston is paying $170,000 a year, Rowland said.