Coroner pushes for new morgue facility
WEST CHESTER » Chester County Coroner Dr. Christina VandePol is asking the county to take action to solve a problem she believes has long existed and do something necessary for those who live and die here.
VandePol recently pressed the county commissioners to approve the constructionof a newcounty forensic facility — more colloquially
known as a morgue — to replace a system and amenities that she maintains has been demonstrated to be “outdated” and “inadequate” for those among the deceased her office is responsible for.
“I know that Chester County prides itself on ensuring that the best possible services and programs are available to its residents,” VandePol said during a virtual commissioners meeting on Oct. 6. “I have to assure you, the Chester County coroner facilities are not only not the best, but maybe among the worst in the state.”
The coroner pointed to a needs assessment survey that was conducted by a national design firm, Crime Lab Design of Michigan, this year which showed not only the need for a new forensic facility, but also the best location for the building. The study recommended that the county build a morgue at the South Coatesville property where the county’s new Public Safety Training Campus is located.
The cost of the 20,000-square-foot building, which could be completed as soon as 2024, is estimated at between $13 million and $15 million, she said.
“We have a location that would work,” VandePol said in a telephone interview Sunday. “The dollar amount is not more than some other ventures taken on this year. I think it is time that we get this done. It has been kicked down the road too long now.”
None of the commissioners offered comment on VandePol’s presentation on Tuesday. But in a statement issued afterward, they said they understood the coroner’s position and were examining her proposal.
“We understand Chester County has a need for a dedicated morgue space,” the commissioners — Chairwoman MarianMoskowitz, Vice Chairman Josh Maxwell, and Commissioner Michelle
Kichline — said. “We had an opportunity to review the (Crime Lab Design) report when it was first released. The report is useful in helping us understand the specific requirements as we move forward.
“A dedicated morgue space is a priority capital project and we will be reviewing the recommendations as part of our 2021 budget analysis,” the trio said in their statement.
The need for a county morgue has been discussed by various administrations for at least 30 years, VandePol, who took over as coroner in 2018. She said she came across blueprints that had been drawn up to locate a set of offices and autopsy space in the former Hazlett Building on North Walnut Street in West Chester.
But nothing became of the plans, and the county continued to rely on the generosity of hospitals in the county for autopsy facilities — where post mortem examination are done for deceased individuals that fall under the Coroner’s Office jurisdiction, generally those people who die in the county and who are not under a doctor’s care or hospitalized.
But VandePol said that when she took office, she quickly realized that those spaces made available by Brandywine Hospital in Caln and Chester County Hospital in West Chester were not up-to-standards for modern forensic facilities. “I was speechless,” she said.
“It is not something that anyone on the outside sees,” she said of the spaces available. “It’s not something the county talks about.”
The facilities are cramped, rusty, lack modern equipment amenities for staff performing autopsies such as scales, showers and eyewashes, and lack proper ventilation, the coroner said. VandePol declined to lay the blame at the hospitals for the shortcomings, however, because, “It is not the hospitals’ responsibility (to provide a forensic facility). It is the county’s. But the county never stepped up and built its own facility.
VandePol said past commissioners had never even seen the two spaces provided for by the hospitals until she invited them to tour them.
She said a proposal for construction of a new facility was put out for bid in 2019, but eventually dismissed by the former commissioners.
When the two new Democratic commissioners, Moskowitz and Maxwell, took office, VandePol made another pitch. She was able to show the administration that it was not only her opinion of the inadequacy of the current system, but the judgment of the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners, which declined to grant its accreditation to the county facilities last year.
Though the association praised the autopsies performed and the reports generated from them, it said VandePol should find a dedicated facility. “It is strongly recommended that (Chester County) continue pursuit of this goal, not only to allow the office to become accredited, but also to provide adequate services to the citizens of the county,” the report said.
VandePol noted that neighboring counties such as Bucks, Lancaster and Lehigh, all have their own facilities.
Currently, the Coroner’s Office is located in the basement of the Government Services Center in West Goshen. But that space is mostly administrative offices, plus a storage room for tissue taken frombodies during autopsies that doubled as a place for the office coffee maker and toaster oven.
According to a summary of the needs assessment findings, Crime Labs evaluated two concepts: renovation of the existing basement level of the Government Services Center and construction of a new facility. It eventually “strongly” recommended pursuing construction of a new facility, due to “several serious concerns and challenges” with renovating the existing building. Not the least of those concerns is that the GSC was built in 1991, and is at the end of its initial 30-year lifespan.
The needs of the Corner’s Office have increased since VandePol took office, with the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic increasing its caseload, she said, while hospital space has been curtailed because of their own needs.
“I feel like we are caught in the middle,” she said. “I urge the commissioners to take a close look at the needs assessment and take action to do something about this.”