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duckweedpond has spotted, on the C-L’s Perspectives page, an article by Louisa Dixon, head of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety under Governor Ray Mabus, whom ducky believes was the first female highway-patrol chief in the country. Dixon proposes how the state’s need for a full-time medical examiner can be met:

Here’s what can be done: In its March 17 editorial, The Clarion-Ledger called for filling the position of state medical examiner. This is an excellent first step, but equally important is to fully fund the office so that a complete staff of forensic pathologists can be hired to perform or oversee all autopsies. A fully staffed state medical examiner’s office will make possible the early detection of serial crimes, terrorist activities, the arrival of new forms of “street drugs”and other critical public health issues.

At the rate of $550 per autopsy, counties are spending approximately $1.2 million per year for autopsies. Of the 2,150 autopsies performed annually, 100 non-traumatic autopsies are performed at University Medical Center, 350 autopsies are performed in New Orleans (deaths occurring in the counties where New Orleans is more readily accessible) and the remainder, 1,700 autopsies, are performed by Dr. Hayne.

Under the National Association of Medical Examiners standards, a pathologist should perform no more than 325 autopsies per year, and 250 would be optimal. A workload of 1,700 cases a year is five to six times the recommended rate – four to give autopsies every day of the year, a Herculean rate especially in light of all the required report writing, record keeping, and time for legal proceedings.

Were the annual $1.2 million in county funds to be directed to the state medical examiner’s office and combined with the existing budget for the office, there would be sufficient funds to attract a full complement of qualified forensic pathologists.

Finally, to safeguard the independence of the state medical examiner, the Legislature should return to the paradigm of the original 1974 legislation where appointment, oversight and removal of the state medical examiner was controlled by an independent board, not the commissioner of public safety.

The board should include the attorney general, the commissioner of public safety, the state health officer, the vice-chancellor of University of Mississippi School of Medicine, the presidents of the state Coroner-Medical Examiner Association and the Mississippi Medical Association. Such a change would insulate the state medical examiner from excessive pressure to reach questionable medical and forensic results. …

This one too is worth a full read.