Background and Overview

The Investigations Division of the Medical Examiner"s Office is responsible for investigating the circumstances of death of all cases which come under the jurisdiction of the Medical Examiner. The FY 1996-97 budget for the Investigations Division is $1,105,611, which includes (a) $1,028,083 for permanent and temporary salaries, premium pay, overtime, holiday pay and fringe benefits; and (b) $77,528 for non-personnel costs such as materials and supplies, equipment, services of other departments and other expenses. The Investigations Division consists of a 1.0 FTE authorized Administrative Coroner position, 11.9 FTE authorized Coroner"s Investigator positions and 1.54 FTE authorized temporary positions, for a total of 14.44 authorized positions. Of the 11.9 authorized Investigator positions, one position is currently vacant.

The annual salaries and authorized staffing levels for the Investigations Division, as reflected in the FY 1996-97 Annual Salary Ordinance, are as follows:

Full-time Coroner"s Investigators work eight hour shifts, five days per week. The day is divided into three shifts: the day shift (8 AM to 4 PM), the swing shift (4 PM to 12 AM) and the midnight shift (12 AM to 8 AM). Of the 11 existing Coroner"s Investigators, one serves as a bailiff for the Medical Examiner"s Office. This individual works the day shift, Monday through Friday, and performs primarily clerical tasks (see Section VI: Organization). Of the 10 remaining Coroner"s Investigators, two are currently on provisional status, as they have been working in the Medical Examiner"s Office less than one year and have not yet taken the Civil Service examination. Additionally, there are approximately five part-time Drivers on staff, who are used on an as-needed basis to supplement the existing staff of full-time Coroner"s Investigators and to provide backfill coverage. Drivers, in addition to driving the Medical Examiner"s van, assist the Coroner"s Investigators in removing bodies from the scene. However, Drivers are not always formally trained in and do not participate in other investigative activities.

Because there is no shift overlap built into Investigators" work schedules, the Medical Examiner"s Office must periodically pay Coroner"s Investigators for end-of-shift overtime. The Investigative Services Division"s FY 1996-97 budget for overtime is $42,241 (increased from $21,519 in FY 1995-96), which provides approximately 1,045 hours of overtime per year.

Staffing Levels

A review of minimum staffing requirements and current staffing levels in the Investigations Division revealed that the Division is overstaffed in permanent Coroner"s Investigator positions. Our recommendations, which are described in greater detail below, include (a) reducing the minimum staffing requirements for Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators, and changing the staffing pattern; and (b) formally creating a lower-paid part-time Driver classification. The implementation of these recommendations would (a) reduce the number of Peace Office Standard Training certified staff assigned to the swing shift while maintaining the current level of service; and (b) allow the Medical Examiner"s Office to provide backfill coverage for Coroner"s Investigators with lower-cost Drivers, in the event of absences.

Minimum Staffing Requirements and Current Scheduling Practices

The Investigations Division is required to provide service on a 24 hours per day, seven days per week basis. In order to ensure that this level of coverage is provided, the Medical Examiner"s Office has established minimum staffing requirements and staffing patterns for each shift. According to the Medical Examiner"s Office staffing pattern, there must be at least three staff members on duty during the day and swing shifts (including at least two permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators) and two staff members on duty during the midnight shift (including at least one permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigator). The rationale behind these minimum staffing requirements is based on the following:

Since two individuals are needed to lift and remove bodies from the scene, at least two employees must be assigned to each shift in order to respond to calls in the field. At least one of these individuals must be a permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigator to comply with stated policies and competently conduct the investigation at the death scene, while the other employee may be a provisional Coroner"s Investigator or part-time Driver.

During the day and swing shifts, there must also be one additional Coroner"s Investigator available to answer telephone calls at the office, and make determinations on whether or not the Medical Examiner"s Office has jurisdiction over a specific case, while the two other employees in the van are responding to calls. The employees in the van are provided with a beeper and a cellular phone in case a call comes in to the Office to which they must respond.

During the midnight shift, at least one of the two individuals on duty must be a permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigator. While the two individuals are in route to or at a death scene, calls to the Medical Examiner"s Office roll over to the non-emergency Paramedic Dispatch phone number. The Investigator later calls Paramedic Dispatch to retrieve messages. Since no Medical Examiner"s Office staff are needed to stay in the office to answer calls during the midnight shift, a third person is not scheduled.

The minimum staffing requirements for investigative staff, and daily staffing pattern, as currently defined and practiced by the Medical Examiner"s Office, are shown in Table VII.2.1 below:

Table VII.2.1
Current Minimum Staffing Requirements
for Investigations Division

As reflected in the Table VII.2.1 above, 14,616 hours of staff time are needed per year in order to satisfy the Medical Examiner"s staffing requirements for permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators. However, Table VII.2.2 below illustrates that the number of hours of service provided by 11 authorized Coroner"s Investigators is 19,536 hours per year, or 4,920 hours more than the 14,616 hours of service needed. As such, this indicates that the number of Coroner"s Investigator positions in the Medical Examiner"s Office is excessive, given the current staffing requirement for permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators by approximately 2.4 Full Time Equivalents (4,920 divided by 2,088 equals 2.356).

Table VII.2.2
No. of Hours of Service Provided Annually
by Coroner"s Investigators

According to the Medical Examiner"s Office, anticipated and unanticipated leave time taken by Coroner"s Investigators, requires the Department to schedule at least three Coroner"s Investigators during the day and swing shifts in order to ensure that at least two P.O.S.T. certified Coroner"s Investigators are on-duty during each of these shifts, and at least two during the graveyard shift to ensure that at least one P.O.S.T. certified Coroner"s Investigator is on duty during this shift. Table VII.2.3 below conforms to Table VII.2.1 and shows the Medical Examiner"s current shift scheduling practices for P.O.S.T certified Coroner"s Investigators:

Table VII.2.3
Current Shift Scheduling Practices
for Investigations Division

The Budget Analyst believes that the current staffing level of Coroner"s Investigators could be reduced by changing the current staffing pattern for P.O.S.T. certified Coroner"s Investigators during the swing shift from two to one. The Medical Examiner"s Office states that the additional person is scheduled to remain in the office to answer phones when the other two Investigators are in the field. Based on the Budget Analyst"s observations, the call volume on the swing shift is light and does not justify the scheduling of the additional person. The Budget Analyst"s staff estimates that there would be between 15 to 20 calls to the Medical Examiner"s Office during the seven hour period between 5:00 PM and midnight. The Medical Examiner"s Office could extend the current arrangement for calls coming in during the swing shift to be automatically forwarded to the Paramedic Dispatch phone number after four rings if no one is available to answer the phone. According to the Assistant Chief of the Paramedic Dispatch Unit, this would not be problematic.

Reducing the minimum staffing requirement from two to one Coroner"s Investigator during the swing shift would allow the Medical Examiner"s Office to eliminate one of the three Coroner"s Investigators currently scheduled during the swing shift. As such, the minimum staffing requirements for permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators and the shift scheduling practices could be revised as shown in Tables VII.2.4 and VII.2.5 below:

Table VII.2.4
Proposed Minimum Staffing Requirements
for Investigations Division

Table VII.2.5
Proposed Shift Scheduling
for Coroner"s Investigators

Reducing the number of Coroner"s Investigators by one Investigator would result in a staffing level of 10 authorized full-time Coroner"s Investigators (plus the bailiff). Based on an estimated 1,776 hours worked per year per Investigator (from Table VII.2.2), the actual level of service provided by Coroner"s Investigators would be 17,760 hours per year (1,776 per position x 10 positions), or 6,067 hours more than the 11,693 hours of service needed under the revised minimum staffing requirements. The elimination of one Coroner"s Investigator position would result in an annual savings of $67,808 per year (consisting of $56,272 in salaries and $11,536 in fringe benefits). As there is currently one vacant Coroner"s Investigator position in the Medical Examiner"s Office, the elimination of this position would not result in a lay-off.

It should be noted that under this proposed staffing pattern all of the scheduled personnel are permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigators. This allows maximum flexibility in scheduling and will ensure that any absence can be backfilled with a lower paid, part-time Driver. It should also be noted that during the day shift, the Bailiff , who is a trained permanent Peace Officer Standard Training certified Coroner"s Investigator is on duty. This individual can provide additional coverage by fielding telephone calls and, if necessary, respond to death scenes.

Part-Time Driver Staff

As noted above, there is an authorized staff of 1.54 FTE part-time, as-needed Drivers. Although they do not possess the same licensing and other qualifications as full-time Coroner"s Investigators, part-time Drivers are paid at the first step hourly rate for a full-time Coroner"s Investigator of $22.16 per hour.

The Medical Examiner"s Office has an annual budget of $70,000 for temporary salaries for part-time Drivers, which provides an estimated 3,159 hours of service per year, as shown in Table VII.2.6 below:

Table VII.2.6
Estimated No. of Hours of Service
Provided by Part-time Drivers

Part-time Drivers should not be paid at the same hourly rate as Coroner"s Investigators, as they do not possess the same qualifications and training. In order to alleviate this situation, we recommend that the Medical Examiner take the following steps:

• In cooperation with the Human Resources Department, formally create a part-time Driver classification to perform the duties currently performed by current part-time staff The use of this temporary staff would provide greater flexibility and allow the Medical Examiner"s Office to backfill Coroner"s Investigators with lower-cost Drivers.

• This new class of Drivers should be paid at the same hourly rate as the 2520 Morgue Attendant or the 2523 Forensic Autopsy Technician, as the duties of both of these classifications are more comparable with the duties of the Drivers. The 2520 Morgue Attendant earns an entry level starting salary of $17.68 per hour, and the 2523 Forensic Autopsy Technician earns an entry level starting salary of $18.21 per hour.

• Assuming an hourly rate of $17.68 per hour (a 20 percent reduction from the current hourly rate of $22.16), the annual budget for temporary salaries should be reduced by $14,149, from $70,000 to $55,851 per year. This temporary salaries budget of 55,851 would still provide 3,159 hours of service by part-time Drivers at $17.68 per hour.

In summary, the total savings from eliminating one Coroner"s Investigator positions and reducing the annual budget for temporary salaries is $81,957 per year, as shown below:

The implementation of the above recommendations would also allow the Medical Examiner to exceed the revised minimum staffing requirement by 456 hours per year, as shown below:

In addition, as noted above, the Investigative Services Division has an annual overtime budget of $42,241, which provides an additional 1,045 hours of overtime annually.

Training and Qualifications

The training and experience requirements for Coroner"s Investigators, as defined by the Civil Service Commission position description, include:

• Possession of a High School diploma;

• At least two years of applicable experience in a coroner"s office, private funeral parlor or in related field investigation work; and

• Possession of a valid State Chauffeurs License and a current, valid Embalmers License issued by the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers of the State of California.

In addition, newly hired Coroner"s Investigators are required to participate in the 80-hour Peace Officers Standard of Training (POST) basic training course and the California Penal Code 832 powers of arrest class. Additionally, new Coroner"s Investigators receive a minimum of six-months of in-house training. Although homicide investigation and crime scene investigation training is available through POST, this training is currently not required for Coroner"s Investigator staff.

In our survey of other comparable jurisdictions, two jurisdictions stated that POST death investigation training is required for investigative staff. According to the Police Department, POST offers various classes in crime scene investigations, death investigations and/or blood spatter analysis.

The Chief Medical Examiner currently has a policy of sending an on-call Forensic Pathologist to each scene involving a suspected homicide or motor vehicle accident. The Coroner"s Investigator at the scene of death is required to page the on-call Forensic Pathologist if (a) he/she suspects that a death has been caused by homicide; (b) a death has been caused by a motor vehicle accident; or (c) the cause of death is unclear. Since Pathologists are not eligible to receive paid overtime, Pathologists receive compensatory time off each time they are called out to a scene. While the practice of sending a Forensic Pathologist to suspected homicides and motor vehicle accidents is beneficial in that it assists the Pathologist in determining the manner and cause of death, it is time-consuming and sometimes results in unnecessary costs if it is determined at the scene that the cause of death was not in fact a homicide.

We recommend that the Medical Examiner"s Office prepare a comprehensive training program for all Coroner"s Investigators, which should include some combination of homicide investigations, blood spatter analysis, crime scene investigations and/or other types of training. This would equip Coroner"s Investigators with the necessary training to make more educated decisions regarding the circumstances of death, which will assist them in determining whether it is necessary to page the on-call Forensic Pathologist. For example, as a result of this additional training, Coroner"s Investigators may in some cases be able to rule out homicide as the cause of death, thereby avoiding a costly on-scene visit by the on-call Forensic Pathologist. Additional training for Coroner"s Investigators would also assist the Forensic Pathologists in making determinations as to the cause and manner of death, and it would help ensure that Forensic Pathologists are called to all suspected homicides and to motor vehicle accidents only when absolutely necessary.

Conclusions

A review of minimum staffing requirements and current staffing levels in the Investigations Division revealed that the Division is overstaffed in permanent Coroner"s Investigator positions. Additionally, the staff of part-time Drivers are paid at the same salary as entry level Coroner"s Investigators, even though Drivers do not possess the same licensing and other qualifications as full-time Coroner"s Investigators.

In addition, based on interviews with staff and on discussions with other jurisdictions, we recommend that the Medical Examiner"s Office prepare a comprehensive training program for all Coroner"s Investigators, which should include some combination of training in homicide investigations, blood spatter analysis, crime scene investigations, etc. Additional training would assist the Forensic Pathologists in making determinations as to the cause and manner of death and would help ensure that Forensic Pathologists are called to suspected homicides and motor vehicle accidents only when absolutely necessary.

The implementation of these recommendations would (a) reduce the minimum staffing requirements for Coroner"s Investigators while maintaining the current level of service; (b) allow the Medical Examiner"s Office to provide backfill coverage for Coroner"s Investigators with lower-cost Drivers; (c) increase the competency of all Coroner"s Investigators, thereby possibly reducing call-outs for Forensic Pathologists; and (d) result in cost savings of an estimated $81,957 per year.

Recommendations

The Administrative Coroner and/or Chief Medical Examiner should:

VII.2.1 Reduce the minimum staffing requirement for Coroner"s Investigators during the swing shift from two to one Coroner"s Investigator by arranging for calls coming in during the swing shift to be automatically forwarded to the DPH Paramedic Dispatch phone number after four rings if no one is available to answer the phone in the Medical Examiner"s Office, as is currently the practice during the midnight shift.

VII.2.2 Reduce the number of Coroner"s Investigator positions by one positions.

VII.2.3 In cooperation with the Human Resources Department, formally create a part-time Driver classification to perform the duties currently performed by current staff. This new class of part-time Drivers should be paid at the same hourly rate as the 2520 Morgue Attendant classification or the 2523 Forensic Autopsy Technician classification.

VII.2.4 Reduce the annual temporary salaries budget for Investigative Services by $14,149 , from $70,000 to $55,851 per year.

VII.2.5 Prepare a comprehensive training program for all Coroner"s Investigators, which should include some combination of homicide investigations, blood spatter analysis, crime scene investigations and/or other types of training.

Costs/Benefits

The elimination of one Coroner"s Investigator positions, would result in an annual savings of $67,808 per year. In addition, paying part-time Drives at a lower hourly rate than Coroner"s Investigators would allow for a reduction in the temporary salaries budget by $14,149, resulting in a total savings of $81,957 annually.

The use of lower-paid temporary staff would allow the Medical Examiner"s Office to provide backfill coverage for Coroner"s Investigators with lower-cost Drivers.

The implementation of these recommendations would also reduce the minimum staffing requirements while maintaining the current level of service.

Additional training for Coroner"s Investigators would assist the Forensic Pathologists in making determinations as to the cause and manner of death and would help ensure that Forensic Pathologists are called to suspected homicides and motor vehicle accidents only when absolutely necessary.