Almost done blogging for the day:
"State lags on death exams; Fewer autopsies because of backlog, but delays continue" by Matt Rocheleau, Globe Staff March 17, 2015
Massachusetts’ understaffed medical examiner’s office has in recent years conducted external examinations, instead of more thorough autopsies, on an increasing number of bodies — a practice the office acknowledges does not meet national standards and could cause it to miss actual causes of death.
The shift in approach is part of an effort to limit demands on overworked medical examiners and to reduce backlogs of unfinished autopsy reports and death certificates that have plagued the office for years. Continued delays in autopsies have left some families with no knowledge of why, or how, a loved one died — and prevented the office from earning full accreditation.
Doing external exams on bodies may save time for other worthy tasks, but it also poses some risks, Chief Medical Examiner Henry M. Nields noted in an annual report submitted to the Legislature in mid-January.
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In the recent report to the Legislature, the office said that a lack of funding has been a key contributor to the lingering inefficiencies. But perhaps more concerning is that even when the office received an infusion of cash last year and launched an “exhaustive nationwide search” to hire more staff, it was unable to find any qualified medical examiners who wanted to join the Massachusetts medical examiner’s office.
WhereTF did all the money go?
No one even applied, officials told the Globe.
Other issues detailed in the report:
At this point my interest in the story died.
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You may need to check with Social Security to see if you are actually dead or not.
UPDATE: New staff to help pathologists clear up unfinished cases
