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Changes in autopsy procedures for suspected overdose cases
3:56:20
ยท
132 sec
Dr. Jason Graham explains the changes made to autopsy procedures for suspected overdose cases at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). He emphasizes that these changes were implemented to address staffing concerns while maintaining accuracy in determining cause and manner of death.
- Autopsies continue to be performed daily, including for suspected overdose cases
- New guidance allows medical examiners more flexibility in deciding whether an autopsy is necessary
- Two main medical procedures: full autopsy (invasive) and external physical examination
- All examinations are conducted within the context of a complete death investigation
- Comprehensive toxicology testing is performed in all cases
- New post-mortem CT scanning capability provides additional diagnostic information
- Changes aim to increase efficiency while maintaining accuracy in determining cause and manner of death
Lynn Schulman
3:56:20
Okay.
3:56:21
Great.
3:56:23
Why were suspected overdose or autopsies specifically chosen to be paused?
Jason Graham
3:56:27
So we continue to do autopsies every day, seven days a week, and that includes autopsies that may involve overdoses.
3:56:37
In the midst of the record caseload in the face of staffing concerns, we evaluated our data and were able to, based on our experience over the course of many years dealing with the opioid crisis and the experience of performing autopsies on the part of our doctors over these years, we were able to be flexible and change our guidance about certain types of cases that gave our doctors greater flexibility to use their medical judgment about whether or not an autopsy is performed or not.
3:57:16
And we've, in addition to adding that flexibility, would say that we have two basic medical procedures that we perform in our office.
3:57:28
Either an autopsy, which is an invasive procedure, versus an external physical examination of a person by our physicians.
3:57:38
And in both instances, those examinations are done in the context of a complete death investigation, a scene investigation if it occurs in the field, in addition to comprehensive toxicology testing.
3:57:50
So we perform comprehensive toxicology testing to determine if there's a drug that may be involved in someone's death.
3:57:57
And we've also incorporated new post mortem imaging, our CT scanning capability, which gives our doctors more diagnostic information than they've had before, that they put to use in making those judgments about which cases need an autopsy and which do not.
3:58:13
So we've not stopped performing autopsies at all.
3:58:17
We are Right.
3:58:17
We continue to perform autopsies every day.
3:58:20
We've added a level of flexibility that increases the judgment of our doctors in terms of what's medically necessary, as a doctor in the hospital would decide what procedures may or may not be needed.