Smiley-McDonald Hope M, Keyes Kelly A, Wire Sean, Greenwell Kathryn, Santos Nelson A, Ropero-Miller Jeri D
RTI International, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA.
Forensic Sci Int Synerg. 2024 Apr 12;8:100467. doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2024.100467. eCollection 2024.
In the United States, medical examiners and coroners (MECs) fill critical roles within our public health and public safety systems. These professionals are primarily charged with determining the cause and manner of death as they investigate deaths and respond to associated scenes and mass fatalities and can also help identify trends in public health crises through medicolegal death investigations. Despite their instrumental role, they are organized in disparate systems with varying governing structures, functions, staffing, caseload, budget, and access to resources. This paper examines data from the 2018 Census of Medical Examiner and Coroners to evaluate MEC operations in the United States. The findings show that MEC offices' organizational and operational governance structures greatly influence resources, workloads, and access to information and services. Standalone MEC offices were generally better resourced than those affiliated with law enforcement, public health, forensic science, district attorneys, or other agencies..
在美国，法医和验尸官（MECs）在我们的公共卫生和公共安全系统中发挥着关键作用。这些专业人员主要负责在调查死亡事件以及应对相关现场和大规模死亡事件时确定死因和死亡方式，并且还可以通过法医学死亡调查帮助识别公共卫生危机中的趋势。尽管他们发挥着重要作用，但他们是在不同的系统中组织起来的，这些系统具有不同的管理结构、职能、人员配备、工作量、预算和资源获取途径。本文研究了2018年法医和验尸官普查的数据，以评估美国MECs的运作情况。研究结果表明，MEC办公室的组织和运营管理结构极大地影响资源、工作量以及信息和服务的获取。独立的MEC办公室通常比隶属于执法部门、公共卫生部门、法医学、地方检察官或其他机构的办公室资源更充足。
