HONOLULU (AP) - Honolulu’s chief medical examiner is asking city officials for more financial support as his office struggles to deal with a heavy workload.
Dr. Christopher Happy submitted his budget report to the City Council asking for additional funding to hire another forensic pathologist to conduct autopsies. The report says the number of cases at the Honolulu office exceeds national standards, according to KHON-TV (https://bit.ly/2oeWepI).
An administrative officer for Happy’s office says its four pathologists handle 1,400 to 1,500 autopsies a year, which amounts to more than 350 autopsies for each pathologist.
The National Association of Medical Examiners recommends each pathologist conduct only 250 autopsies a year. Any more than 325 autopsies per pathologist is a violation that could result in the office losing its accreditation.
The Honolulu office is not currently accredited.
Experts say short staffing is a problem at medical examiner’s offices across the country.
Autopsies are crucial to police investigations, and having overburdened pathologists could lead to wrongful convictions, said Ken Lawson, with the Hawaii Innocence Project.
“That’s what we’ve seen on a national scale when it comes to coroners being overworked and doing too many autopsies in a one-year period,” Lawson said. “They would just rely on what the officer says. It’s called cognitive bias.”
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Information from: KHON-TV, https://khon.com
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