The Adams County Coroner’s Office was awarded accreditation through the International Association of Coroners & Medical Examiners.
The international association’s stamp of approval certifies that the four-member county department is providing the best service to the community according to Pat Felix, Adams County coroner.
The nine-month process cost Adams County $2,500 and consisted of Felix proving her department met 130 standards in the areas of administrative (33 standards), forensics (43 standards), investigative (31 standards) and facilities (23 standards). The coroner’s office was required to meet or exceed 100 percent of the 34 mandatory standards. Ninety percent compliance of the 130 standards was needed.
According to the International Association of Coroners & Medical Examiners’ website, Adams County is one of 20 agencies accredited nationally. In Pennsylvania, there are five accredited coroner’s offices.
Adams County’s Coroner’s Office operates around the clock. Because the four-person department has a morgue and serves a population of more than 100,000, an on-site inspection was conducted by two auditors from Washington state, Felix said. The county paid for the transportation, meal per diem, lodging and associated incidentals for the two auditors who came to the Straban Township facility at Adams County Prison, 45 Major Bell Lane.
The coroner’s office investigates sudden and unexplained deaths and ascertains the cause and manner of death. Officials then determine if another person was responsible for the death. Bodies to be cremated, buried at sea or otherwise disposed of so as to be thereafter unavailable for examination require authorization from the Coroner, according to the coroner’s webpage at www.adamscounty.us.
“The people of Adams County can be assured that our office is committed to conducting an accurate and compassionate investigation in making determinations into the cause and manner of death,” Felix said.
In addition to the agency’s gaining accreditation, Felix and her chief deputy, Francis Dutrow, have acquired their national board registry certification through the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, a nonprofit certification board promoting the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.
The national board certifies individuals who have the proven knowledge and skills necessary to perform medicolegal death investigations as set forth in the National Institutes of Justice 1999 publication “Death Investigation: A Guide for the Scene Investigator.” The publication was updated in 2011.