Travis County Commissioners Court
March 28, 2006
Item 13
13. Consider and take appropriate action on proposed status report for counties with interlocal agreements for autopsy services.
>> good afternoon. Judge and Commissioners. Alicia perez, executive manager for administrative operations and that -- [indiscernible] is here also, she's a chief administrative officer for the medical examiner's office. And you have, I slipped either in front of your desk or in your folder a copy of a revised draft, judge, I took your draft and just made just a couple of little changes in it and it would have a number 13 on the right side of the paper and it says draft.
>> you didn't take ms. [indiscernible]'s name and phone number out, did you?
>> oh, no, no. Her name is in there. I think -- her phone number is in there, too. But what you have before you is -- is a revised -- copy of -- of the letter that we brought to you last week. I think most of the wordsmithing was done by judge Biscoe. And it's -- it's broken out really quite well in different sections. It talks about our decision to pursue accreditation. It talks about the steps that you have taken to increase staff and resources that were added to the budget in the medical examiner's office about the addition of the four pathologists, then the effort underway for us to hire two -- to the two vacancies that we exist now it adds -- talks about the addition of the chief administrative officer, provides her name and phone number, also. Then it goes into contractual terms and conditions. Judge, I don't know if you wanted to address that particular area when you express some --
>> I tried to kind of softly word it, but I thought I heard the court saying, the other thing the more I thought that we should provide a lot more detail to the -- to the -- to the other 45 counties so that they would get some feel for changes that we have considered, were implemented, what was on the horizon, I say that I would attach an attachment a here which really are the performance standards and I didn't attach it here because we had it part of our backup. I would send it down to them, the other question is whether we follow them. And by accepting them, we were indicating our intention really to -- to adhere them, right? And -- and but I -- we really have done a whole lot, but still there's a lot more to do. And my thinking, too, was -- was that the one thing that I thought about afterwards is if we mention the names accreditation standards, there is a website where you can go and access the whole list of details, right?
>> it -- it provides information on name and I’m not sure about the checklist.
>> I’m not certain that the checklist is available on the website. But I would be happy to provide it to anyone that might be interested.
>> well, for those that want greater detail, more information about the named standards, they can just call you and get them.
>> absolutely.
>> I thought about that, also. There is -- I didn't want to just inundate them with information about this, but I thought that -- that they ought to get -- detailed information. There is -- there is a pretty good overview, I think. And I tried to put it in such a way if they didn't want to read all of the narrative, at least they could see the highlights.
>> so we just -- to accept our changes judge, they would have just one other change in terms of a decision to pursue accurate addition. We would add that the time line that the court approved last week, make that attachment a. Attachment b would be the performance measures.
>> that's fine. Where they can see the time line.
>> yeah.
>> we could have it ready for our signature this afternoon.
>> any problem with that?
>> no, no problem with that.
>> judge, the only thing that I have a question about, show a little -- still a little uncomfortable with, given the either/or, the 48 hours or, you know, letting you know that we might not be able to do something, do you think somebody might read that about if we leave them, if we leave them with you, you are going to do it within 48 hours, I mean, is there something that happens to a body if you don't do something within 48 hours?
>> no, we keep them in -- in coolers, but -- but we found that even in harris county that is the largest, usually within a 48 hour time period because what they do is they take them in order or if there is, you know, a priority case, the only time that -- that they said or that we found that you wouldn't be able to is perhaps if there was a major accident or a natural disaster, but 48 hours is what we found even the large medical examiner's office are able to turn them around.
>> I had a little bit more wide open when I chatted with alicia. You think we will be able to do them within 48 hours ourselves even if we --
>> yes. Once we are fully staffed. Because you have two doctors, you have got the ability of having three doctors working at one time. And when we hired the other doctors, you will have at least two of them working at one -- at one time at least. So I think we will be able to -- to do that and keep the numbers down.
>> second day I understand is a whole lot for us. If you hustle to get it done within the second day, looks like, you think we need a third day within 72 hours? The standard really is 48 hours, I would be more comfortable with the 48 hours, I feel that we can get to that within 48 hours. I’m trying to give you flexibility. If the cowboy says hey -- there may be a situation where we can't do it in 48 hours, we need to let you know so so that you can go somewhere else. Obviously we can always do that.
>> yeah.
>> okay.
>> fine with me. No pride of authorship, any other recommended changes, no problem with me.
>> judge, you recommend -- [indiscernible]
>> I was going to leave it at 48. I guess the other thing is that I tell them we need to change our contract with them, I don't say when. But I sort of leave open, I understand that some of them we can probably move on immediately, others we will --
>> I agree.
>> take a little bit more time, right, because of the wording of the current contract.
>> I think that's what -- barbara wilson, I think that's what she told us. Okay.
>> what -- I would move approval with this of the changes that are incorporated. Draft of the addition of the -- of the main proposed schedule. Implementation schedule for Travis County. Suggested a few minutes ago, we attach that, get it out, get it to the Commissioners court for signing. The next day as soon as you get that basically set them up.
>> any more discussion?
>> all in favor. That that passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:48 AM