Key deadline looming for ME’s office
Accreditation is at issue
Yesterday’s dispute over the remains of Aaron Hernandez shined an unwelcome spotlight on the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which has been plagued by poor performance and staffing that could jeopardize its national accreditation in December.
The office has been called out for slow turnaround on autopsies, cause-of-death findings that don’t hold up at trial, and daunting backlogs. The issues persist even after reforms were implemented more than a decade ago after the office was found to have misplaced remains.
Defense attorney Joseph Desmond has criticized the ME’s procedures and the legal weight its rulings carry.
“Sometimes those death certificates are signed with very little analysis of the causes of death or any alternative causes,” said Desmond, who questions if the office has the resources to cover all of the bases the law requires. “I don’t think the medical examiner’s office has any chance of doing the autopsies its own policy would dictate that it do.”
But in the Hernandez case, Desmond said, “People are watching. They’re going to do their best to get it right.”
For the past four years, the office has received only provisional accreditation from the National Association of Medical Examiners, due to its inability to complete 90 percent of autopsy reports in 90 days, as required. The provisional status only lasts five years, so the office will lose its accreditation and have to reapply if it can’t meet standards by December.
“Their cycle ends this summer, so they will be up for an on-site visit,” said Brian Peterson, president of the national association, adding Bay State offices in “each year have shown substantial progress in correcting their deficiencies.”
Still, the office is falling far short on a range of metrics, according to Chief Medical Examiner Henry Nields’ December report to the Legislature, which stated examiners conducted 292 autopsies last year. National standards say they should conduct no more than 250. In 2008, some handled 500 to 800 autopsies.
The report said the high volume has “adversely impacted families who need a final death certificate and autopsy report to settle life insurance claims or probate matters, or to simply explain why their family member or loved one died.”
The office has also struggled to eliminate its backlog. It closed 2016 with 2,351 incomplete autopsy reports, and only completed 1,120 that year. It also took hits last year for retracting shaken-baby syndrome findings in three cases.