Office of the Medical Examiner, 2017 Annual Report

The Annual Report for the Medical Examiner Office provides a statistical breakdown of the deaths reported to our office in 2017 for Allegan, Benzie, Calhoun, Grand Traverse, Kalamazoo, Leelanau, Mason, Muskegon, Saint Joseph, and Van Buren Counties. Our office also provides forensic pathology and forensic anthropology services to a number of other counties in Michigan and Indiana.

If you compare this report to last year, you will notice we added five counties over the course of the year: Benzie, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Mason and Van Buren. Not all of the counties were with us for the entire year, and this report will include details only for the months we served as their medical examiner. In addition, because of the growth of our caseload, we added another Deputy Medical Examiner, Dr. Ted Brown. Dr. Brown is a board-certified forensic pathologist, as are the five other Deputy Medical Examiners in our office. Given there are only about 500 forensic pathologists practicing in the US, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) employs more than 1% of the total to provide service to counties in Michigan and Indiana. Given the severe shortage of forensic pathologists in the country, we feel very fortunate to be fully staffed.

Late in 2017, we instituted a goal of having 95% of our autopsy reports completed within 30 days of the examination. This is a goal we are proud to say we are achieving. The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) accreditation standard requires 95% of cases to be completed within 60 days, however, we are providing answers to families, law enforcement, public health and other interested parties 30 days sooner than we were a year ago.

Much like 2016, drug-related deaths, primarily from opioids, remain extremely high in 2017. Many counties saw increases in the numbers of deaths while a few saw slight decreases. This epidemic stresses medical examiner offices across the country due to the need for adequate cooler space, increased staff, and complex toxicology testing for new substances.

In 2017, representatives from our office were active in the Medical Examiner Working Group. This group, with representatives from every organization or agencies with an interest in the work product of Michigan Medical Examiners, such as the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, Michigan Association of Counties, Law Enforcement, Public Health, the Michigan Funeral Directors Association and Gift of Life (just to name a few), have worked over the past few years to put forth recommendations to improve death investigation in Michigan. The legislation the Working Group developed has not yet been introduced, however, if it is, the counties we serve as the Medical Examiner will see few changes in day-to-day operations as all of the requirements are currently being met.

Our system works so well because we have an amazing team of individuals, including the investigators who respond to death scenes 24/7/365, our administrative staff, the medical examiners, the quality and data analyst, the in-house investigative staff and those who provide us forensic technical support. These individuals are incredibly dedicated and every day they strive to provide excellent and professional quality death investigations.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this document is full of numbers, tables, and charts. It is not lost on any of us who serve your county that each case contributing to a number represents the death of a person, someone who was possibly a parent, grandparent, spouse, child, relative or friend to others. The deaths also represent a loss to our communities. We dedicate this report to the memory of those who suffered the loss of a friend or relative in 2017.