Travis County Commissioners Court
August 18, 2009,
Item 2
>> number two, a special announcement.
2.
special announcement: announce receipt of national association of medical examiners (name) accreditation by the Travis County medical examiner's office.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, I'm danny hobby with emergency services, today it's my honor to be with dr.
david dulenak the chief medical examiner for the Travis County medical examiner's office, as well as beth devery the chief administrative officer for the medical examiner's office.
each day, provides us an opportunity to compliment those that achieve things and so today what we want to try to do is to mention to you something that's very special to this office that they've been working on for quite some time.
and my introduction is going to be short.
as it should be.
because the true honor and privilege should go to beth and to dr.
delenak.
i'm going to let them kind of share with you this special announcement that they have.
>> good morning,.
>> beth devery.
just to give you a little history, the national association of medical examiner's or name as we refer to it, is the only entity that provides accreditation of medical examiner's and coroner's offices in the country.
there are hundreds of standards that an office has to meet in order to become accredited.
only 58 offices in the country are accredited at this time.
the accreditation process consists of a rigorous inspection of the physical facility, a review of the office practices, implementation of policies and procedures.
but the overall objective of the accreditation process is to ensure the application of standards that are set forth by name that will aid in developing and maintaining a high caliber of medical, legal death investigations in the communities which which the jurisdiction is served.
back in 2005, Travis County made a commitment to improve the medical examiner services to Travis County residents and to the counties that it serves.
in 2005, our toxicology lab became accredited by the american board of forensic toxicologists, one of 25 labs in the country that has that status.
in March of 2006, the Commissioners court took a hard look at the medical examiner's office and set their sights on accreditation by name.
they had six goals for the office to meet, which included the development of a comprehensive policy and procedure manual, structural improvements to our facility, and the submission of an application for accurate digs by October of 2008.
accreditation.
all six of these goals were met.
since 2006, many changes were made to bring our office into compliance and to improve the quality of our services.
the staff, increased by 20% and included the addition of a forensic nurse investigator, a chief administrative officer, two new pathologists and an its support position.
in 2007, the Commissioners court approved a remodel of our facility, which helped streamline our operations and increase efficiency.
we developed new interlocal agreements with the -- with the counties that our office serves.
in November of 2008, our office underwent an intensive two day inspection.
we were granted provisional accreditation status, subject to the hiring of the two last forensic pathologist positions.
in July of this year, those positions were filled and our status changed to full accurate digs.
these efforts would not have been possible without the supervision and support of the Commissioners court.
all of the county department that's worked with us and the staff in our office who gave above and beyond to help us chief these goals.
>> good morning, dr.
david dolenak, chief medical examiner.
just three things that I would like to add to this.
number one, I would like to thank the court for their support.
over the past few years with this endeavor.
name accreditation is a great accomplishment, could not have been achieved without your support.
number two, this accomplishment reflects a lot of good work and effort put forth by not only the staff of the medical examiner's office, but from other county departments as well.
it was a -- it was a team effort and we thank everyone involved for their good work.
and finally, number 3, although we are proud of achieving name accreditation, this is not a finish line where we can say we have arrived.
so to speak.
although in some respects it can be viewed that way.
despite this achievement, we shall continue to seek improvements and advancements to optimize our functions.
name accreditation is, however, reflective of good and proper operations throughout the departments.
which meet a multitude of national standards.
that set the groundwork to perform high quality work.
and this is something that -- that we all should be proud of.
and we thank you for this.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you.
>> really, it's a -- really, it's a great day I guess to some degree I recall when -- when this came before the court and we of course were seeking accreditation and of course during that time, there were certain levels that we had to -- levers that we had to pull to make sure things happened.
all of the departments involved, you guys, kind of a team effort.
all of the departments that were involved during that time came on board to make sure that you did receive accreditation.
in fact the face of the court is even different from 2005 up until now, it was two members on the court that were here at that time, Commissioner sonleitner and Commissioner daugherty who are no longer with us, but they were a part of that team.
so I would like to thank each and every one of you within Travis County that worked on this project because accreditation is a very, very unique status, as you heard beth say earlier, it's only 58 medical examiner facilities in the -- in the nation that -- that has reached this particular accreditation.
when I looked at the backup yesterday, I started asking myself what are the things that we needed to do to require and to make sure we get accreditation.
there's an accreditation checklist that you wouldn't believe.
about this thick, y'all, if you just look at all of the things that you have to go through to acquire accreditation.
so I would like to thank everyone here that's been involved again, hope I don't miss out, leave out anybody, but it's been a heck of an effort and really it doesn't stop here, as you stated.
but at least it's a step in the right direction.
it's that Travis County, medical examiner's office, has the proper accreditation and nationally recognized, that's very important to Travis County and the persons that use this service not only within Travis County but all the other counties that we contract with in the interlocal agreements.
and things of that nature.
so it's -- it's a big deal.
it really is.
i appreciate what you all have done.
thank you.
>> may I soapbox for a moment?
>> certainly.
>> just a very brief soapboxing.
this is -- y'all are two humble.
to have achieved name accreditation is a huge milestone.
i 100% agree with you, doctor, it's not the be all, end all, we will continue to move forward with innovations but had really is a big indicator that should be surrounded in those vegas style lights to -- to show that the medical examiner's office is an integral part of a robust public health organization.
the m.e.'s office doesn't just determine cause of death.
it also tracks the health of our community and I -- I just want to say thank you for that in recognizing the big picture of -- of how the m.e.'s office is an integral part of that -- of that public health initiative, along with the health care district, our various clinic systems, also our jail is a huge part of our public health system.
and I just want to thank you for your teamwork and your leadership in that organization.
>> any other comments?
>> I just can't believe it's been that long
>> [laughter]
>> it goes by pretty quickly, Commissioner.
>> I mean that was great work, too.
>> yeah, great.
>> a lot was achieved.
and so many thanks to you as we look to you to continue leading us to better places, thanks.
>> well, we agreed to pursue name accreditation because we were getting a lot of negative publicity.
there were some examples of actions we had taken that probably were not state-of-the-art or in the best practices manual.
so the question became what can we do to improve the situation and then we were told about name accreditation.
and the court made it -- one of our goals to seek that.
and if that time and today we do about 1500 autopsies annually, that's a whole lot of 'em.
and so there is a -- there is a best practices way to get them done.
and I'm not sure we were doing that at that time.
but -- but thankfully we are -- we are today and -- and we have you all to thank.
>> it's a big deal.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ]
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:07 PM
