Medical examiners’ offices across New York City are experiencing shortages of employees due to reportedly insufficient pay and benefits, forcing them to void autopsies for suspected overdoses.
The city’s medical examiners described the situation as a “crisis” in a letter to Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, Gothamist reported. The doctors, who are currently in negotiations over a new contract, said better pay and benefits are needed to recruit and retain staff to the medical examiner’s office amid country-wide staffing shortages.
Due to the inadequate staffing, they’re no longer performing autopsies for certain suspected overdose deaths, which could lead to less accurate assessments of how some New Yorkers have died, multiple medical examiners told Gothamist.
According to the letter, the city has only 20 full-time ME’s to investigate violent or suspicious deaths and testify in homicide cases. The letter also says additional staff are expected to leave in the coming months.
The medical examiners warn that to cope with the shortage of employees, the city would have to further cut the number of autopsies it performs each year, and consolidate some operations in ways that would have a “dramatic impact on families of the deceased, funeral homes, and religious communities,” as well as police investigations.
Until recently, city medical examiners were generally expected to follow the National Association of Medical Examiners’ recommendation that everyone who dies of a suspected overdose should be autopsied and tested to find what substances are in their systems, in order to rule out any other potential cause of death, medical examiners told Gothamist. Two employees said the office issued an email in late June with new guidance saying they should no longer perform autopsies in some cases where there had been no apparent drug overdose. They reported the email came from Dr. Michele Slone, the First Deputy Chief Medical Examiner.
Forensic experts say there is debate within the medical community about whether an autopsy is needed in every apparent overdose case, and changes in practices are common during staffing shortages. Yet, these changes come at a time when fentanyl overdoses are rampant and dealers are being prosecuted, creating higher stakes for correctly assessing the cause of death, Dr. Susan Ely, a former senior medical examiner for the city, told Gothamist.
Both the mayor’s office and the medical examiner’s office have not yet commented on the ongoing contract negotiations.
