Coroner's office a regional hub for disasters prep, autopsies
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office has become a regional hub that serves nearly half the counties in the state and has the capability to be a command center if a mass fatality disaster happens anywhere in Ohio.
The coroner’s office showed its mass fatality event tents and trailers to area law enforcement and local officials last week, demonstrating the ability to assist in a disaster with many deaths if one would take place in Montgomery County. The coroner’s office has collected the units over a period of years, Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said, and much of it hasn’t been deployed as a large-scale fatality event hasn’t happened.
“It’s forward-thinking to be prepared,” he said. The cost of the disaster units was paid for with funding from state and national grants.
A plane crash, an industrial explosion or another catastrophic event resulting in upwards of 50 or more deaths would cause the coroner’s office to respond with the units, he said. Individual units, which include a refrigeration trailer, processing and examination tents, and a trailer with a CAT scan inside can be mobilized on their own depending on the situation.
Power generators were also attached to the tents and trailers that would allow coroner officials
the ability to work remotely as if they were in a regular morgue. The mass fatality tents and trailers cost about $500,000 and have been accumulated over the past 15 years through state and federal grants.
No one else in the state has a setup like the one his office has, the coroner said, adding that
they can work with other cor
Ohio utilizes regional autopsy centers which means many of the coroner’s offices in smaller counties don’t do their own autopsies but instead contract the work. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office works with almost every county in the southern region of Ohio besides Butler, Hamilton and Clermont counties.
oners across the state to assist them if something happens. Harshbarger has built relationships with many of those coroners, as his office already performs autopsies for about half the counties in the state. Of the 88 counties, the local coroner performs autopsies for between 35 to 45 of them off and on, he said.
“I have staff that are on salary here for the sole purpose of covering other people’s contracts,” he said.
Ohio utilizes regional autopsy centers which means many of the coroner’s offices in smaller counties don’t do their own autopsies but instead contract the work. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office works with almost every county in the southern region of Ohio besides Butler, Hamilton and Clermont counties. In 2021, the coroner’s office completed about 2,300 autopsies with about 1,550 being contract cases, data from the office shows.
Through September of this year, the local coroner’s office has completed about 1,700 autopsies with a little more than 1,100 being contract cases.
The corner’s office has contracted with many of the counties for years, Harshbarger said, noting that the only new relationship the office has this year is with Randolph County in Indiana. Darin James, the coroner for the county there, said he chose to work with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office because it has a good reputation and competitive pricing.
“They do a very good job, I am very pleased with them,” James said. “Their results have a quick turnaround for us and I have had no complaints from any of my deputies or myself with them.”
Harshbarger said his office contracting with other counties is beneficial for Montgomery County residents. He said he has been able to maintain staff so the workload isn’t too much for the office and the extra work helps his office win grants that it otherwise wouldn’t.
“We cover a region, so I can go into the grant request and say I cover 40 counties, the trailers can be used anywhere in the state,” Harshbarger said, “That’s a much higher priority for the state than I’m just going to cover (one county).”
In August, the Dayton Daily News reported in its investigation that Harshbarger was hired earlier this year to a staff position with the Franklin County Coroner’s Office as the two offices signed an expanded contract for autopsy work.
The Dayton Daily News reported last year that several area elected coroners work side jobs with other offices their county contracts with. The Ohio Ethics Commission says this practice “raises issues under the ethics law.”
Harshbarger said he took the job to help the Franklin County Coroner’s Office rebuild from a critical staffing shortage, and he took measures to mitigate ethical concerns. This includes taking a pay cut and reducing his workload in Montgomery County and recusing himself from anything having to do with negotiating the contract between the two counties he works for.
Harshbarger notified Montgomery County commissioners in January that he was engaging in the private practice of medicine. Ohio law allows coroners of large counties to take “fulltime” pay if they don’t have a practice on the side or a reduced “part-time” pay if they do.
“I still sign all the death certificates. I still do all the supervision required. I am there less, but the office is functioning,” he said.
The pay cut lowers his Montgomery County compensation to $89,709 this year. He was paid $219,862 last year, which made him the county’s second-highest-paid employee.
Harshbarger received the job offer from Franklin County in March and started the job in May making $325,000 a year working 30 hours a week. His title is deputy coroner/forensic pathologist. Harshbarger is a licensed forensic pathologist.
Harshbarger said the job was a “good opportunity,” but he mainly went to Franklin County to help it deal with a staff exodus that left him as the only staff forensic pathologist there when he started amid a surge of deaths needing autopsies.
“I’m just trying to help the families of Franklin County,” he said.
He said he recused himself entirely from negotiating that contract after consulting with Montgomery County commissioners and their attorneys and delegated the process to his office director, Brooke Ehlers. Ehlers is the signatory on the contract for Montgomery County.