Yolo County Grand Jury praises Coroner's Office but concerned about autopsy-performing contract

May 20, 2014
By Democrat staff
Daily Democrat

Delays in autopsies from Forensic Medical Group

While the Yolo County Grand Jury praised the operation and management of the Coroner's Office in its latest report, jurors are concerned about a contract with a physicians group that performs autopsies.

The Grand Jury conducted a site inspection of the Coroner's Office and County Morgue and also interviewed managers and staff of the Sheriff's Department along with managers from other organizations and law enforcement agencies. The Grand Jury praised the Coroner's Office for "providing an efficient level of service to the public and for working collaboratively with other public safety organizations."

However, the Grand Jury listed concerns and made recommendations to the Coroner's Office regarding a sole source contract with Fairfield-based Forensic Medical Group, a group of physicians that performs autopsies for Yolo County and other agencies throughout Northern California. The jury noted that Forensic Medical Group has been the subject of a number of news articles questioning the competency of its physicians, after one was terminated in 2010 for "a history of errors in performing autopsies."

The Grand Jury found that the Yolo County contract with the Medical Group lacked clear compliance measures that could be used to monitor the contract as required. The county has been working with the group since 1997 and the contract was renewed for two years in 2013 for $213,000.

Further, the Grand Jury reported "although the Yolo County Board of Supervisors had been told that the Forensic Medical Group physicians were board certified in forensic pathology when it approved a two-year extension on the contract, in fact, the contract does not require, and the county has not verified, whether any of the Medical Group physicians are licensed or board certified."

The Grand Jury urged Yolo County to require Forensic Medical Group physicians "to present proof of medical licensing and board certification in forensic pathology or another specialty acceptable."

Other issues the jury noted with Forensic Medical Group included "an unacceptable backlog" in autopsy reports and that Yolo County, in some instances, paid for autopsy reports that had not yet been received.

Despite the problems the Grand Jury explored, "the Coroner's Division is generally satisfied with the services provided by (Forensic Medical Group), except in the area of timeliness of autopsy reports," according to the Grand Jury's findings.

Apparently, the group would sometimes bump Yolo County's autopsies due to demands from other counties, taking longer than the usual one to two days. In addition, the written report of 13 autopsies, due within 30 days per contract, were pending for more than 60 days.

This creates an issue for the Coroner's Office, since it "cannot issue the death certificate to decedent's families or to other law enforcement agencies until the autopsy report is received," according to the Grand Jury report.

Besides the delay, the county is still obligated to pay the Medical Group $1,250 per autopsy despite the late reports. But the Grand Jury noted that the Coroner's Office has been working with the Sheriff's Office Finance Department to fix this problem.

The Grand Jury recommended the Coroner's Office should require the group "to take immediate measures to clear the backlog" and also should "withhold payment for autopsy services until reports are received."