Inadequate body storage, staff levels costs CT Chief Medical Examiner its national accreditation

FARMINGTON >> Lack of storage space for bodies and shorthanded medical examiners have cost the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner its full national accreditation, the result of deficiencies largely rooted in a spike of fatal drug overdoses in the state.

The OCME’s office said in a release Wednesday that inadequate staffing and refrigerated body storage are among the major deficiencies found by the National Association of Medical Examiners. NAME accredits 90 offices in the United States, serving more than 166 million people, according to the release, including offices in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire.

NAME formally informed OCME that it was being placed on provisional accreditation in a letter dated Jan. 31. The accreditation organization gave its recommendation following an on-site review.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. James Gill had warned last year that such a decision was not only looming, but highly likely. Budget cuts in the department left Gill’s office scrambling to address the sharp rise in drug overdoses in the state. More than 400 people died of fatal drug overdoses between January 2016 and June 2016, according to statistics from Gill’s office.

Read more: http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170215/inadequate-body-storage-staff-levels-costs-connecticut-chief-medical-examiner-its-national-accreditation