Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

Forensic pathologists perform medical and legal autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death and to recover medical and forensic evidence.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) investigates and examines deaths of public interest, including those that are sudden, unexpected and violent, as well as other deaths that present a risk to public health. Forensic pathologists perform medicolegal death investigations and autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death and recover medical and forensic evidence. The OCME provides its findings to families, law enforcement, criminal and civil courts, insurers, public health review and surveillance teams, and others who have a legitimate need for accurate death information.

The OCME has created guidance documents to help local authorities plan how to manage an increase in natural deaths due to a pandemic influenza event in the Commonwealth. A pandemic would likely result in mass casualties across the state. Local medical facilities, first responders, funeral directors and others need to prepare for managing the potentially high numbers of additional deaths during a pandemic. The brochure “Managing Pandemic Influenza Fatality Events” contains an overview of what localities need to plan for before a pandemic including signing and filing out death certificates, handling human remains and storage considerations. Pandemic flu deaths would be natural deaths, and the protocol for pronouncing the death, signing the death certificate and handling the remains would not differ from those of seasonal flu, except that there would be more deaths. The documents include estimates of the possible increase in the number of deaths by county and planning district as predicted from the study of previous pandemics. A forensic epidemiologist on the OCME staff serves as a liaison between the OCME and other public health professionals, state laboratories, law enforcement and other professionals who need timely information on deaths suspicious for emerging infections or bioterrorism as well as those who utilize death data generated by OCME investigations and autopsies. Documents are available at www.vdh.state.va.us/medexam/mass.asp.

A main goal of the OCME is to maintain a high standard of medicolegal death investigation and accreditation. Daily collaboration with law enforcement ensures accurate medical evaluation in the interest of justice and public health. During the 2006 General Assembly session, the reimbursement for local medical examiner services was raised to retain and recruit licensed physicians in the Commonwealth to serve as local medical examiners.

OCME investigates approximately one in 10 Virginia deaths each year (5800 deaths). The most current information can be found in the OCME annual report, which details analyses of OCME cases. The report documents that death from accidents (40 percent) and natural causes (37 percent) constituted the majority of deaths accepted for investigation by OCME. Suicides (14 percent) and homicides (7 percent) were less common. The report also documents additional details of violent, suspicious and sudden deaths. It is available online at www.vdh.virginia.gov/medexam/OCMEAnRpt05.pdf.