Recently fully accredited for the first time, D.C.'s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says years of autopsy backlogs have been erased.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is where autopsies are performed after deaths in the District of Columbia.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has several surgical suites where all six of the office’s forensic pathologists can work at the same time.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
D.C.’s chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell (right) was hired in 2014 by then-mayor Vincent Gray.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
More than 200 bodies can be held in the morgue for autopsy. Chief Medical Examiner Roger Mitchell says the bodies are stored in body bags, on metal racks, in a large cooler.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
In spotless operating rooms, chief medical examiner says “an autopsy is a surgical procedure, but the patient happens to be dead.”
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
After years of backlogs, D.C.’s medical examiner is now completing autopsies within 90 days, 90 percent of the time.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
During an autopsy of a suspected homicide, law enforcement interacts with the coroner during the determination of how a person died.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
Notes are taken on a white board while the autopsy is performed in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
Sometimes organs are sliced to determine their condition during an autopsy, says chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
A special suite is ready to isolate bodies that may have died from biological agents. BSL-3 refers to Biosafety Level 3.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
The morgue is able to hold more than 200 bodies, and is equipped to move them in an emergency
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WTOP/Neal Augenstein
Officials at D.C.’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner allowed reporters to view the facility for the first time in recent memory.
(WTOP/Neal Augenstein)
WASHINGTON — For the first time, D.C.’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has achieved full accreditation from the national oversight board, after erasing a backlog of autopsies.
“There is no backlog,” said chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell, as he opened the District’s morgue to reporters for the first time in recent history.
“When I first got here, 38 percent of our reports were completed within 90 days, now we’re over 90 percent, close to 95 percent,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was hired in 2014 by then-mayor Vincent Gray.
Last month, the National Association of Medical Examiners determined D.C.’s medical examiner office met its standards for full certification.
Before 2011, the agency reached partial accreditation, but was stripped of the certification because the chief medical examiner at the time was not board certified in pathology.
Over the years, delays in autopsy reports have caused problems for prosecutors in criminal cases, with defense attorneys pointing to the office’s lack of accreditation in an attempt to challenge the testimony of examiners.
“I think even the questions then were unfounded,” Mitchell said. “I think the work of this office has been good work for decades.”
Mitchell says of the 300 medical examiner offices in the country, only 73 are fully accredited.
“Now, we have a national standard — a stamp — that shows we are part of a small group of offices in this country that are operating at this national standard,” he said.
Mitchell says the work of his office centers on providing answers to grieving families, “that are seeing some of the worst times of their life.”
“Our main goal at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is to serve those families,” Mitchell said.
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
