Johnson County Medical Examiner seeking national accreditation

Johnson County's Medical Examiner's Office officials will soon apply for national accreditation. If approved it would make the department the second in the state's 99 counties to achieve such recognition.

Johnson County's appointed Medical Examiner, Dr. Marcus Nashelsky, a Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of Iowa, and Johnson County Medical Examiner Administrator Mike Hensch said they plan to submit an application for National Association of Medical Examiners accreditation this spring.

The accreditation process takes a few months and includes an on-site peer inspection. If approved, Johnson County's office would join the Polk County Medical Examiner's Office and Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner, in Ankeny, as accredited Iowa offices.

'Accreditation means that the Medical Examiner's office has demonstrated a way of going about its work that is considered excellent by the National Association of Medical Examiners,” Nashelsky said. 'Accreditation is a formal recognition of professional achievement.”

The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) was founded in 1966 with the goal of encouraging professional excellence among physician death investigators and sharing information for continued improvement among the medical investigation of violent, suspicious, and unexpected deaths.

NAME accreditation emphasizes policies and procedures, with a roughly 300-item checklist of standards that measure numerous factors including qualifications of forensic pathologists, written policies, safety, security and forensic specialist availability.

'Their standards of practice and performances are considered to represent best practice for a medical examiner death investigation system,” Nashelsky said.

NAME accreditation costs $3,500 for the application and $1,000 annually once approved. Accredited offices are reviewed annually and have an on-site visit every five years.

Hensch and Nashelsky said they are confident that the Johnson County office already meets the necessary requirements to achieve accreditation, and that one challenge is systematically generating and maintaining the documentation to show all required practices and procedures are taking place.

With the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City VA Health Care System, Mercy Hospital, and the Iowa Medical and Classification Center all in Johnson County, the Medical Examiner office has naturally become an important medical component to medical care in much of Eastern Iowa, Hensch said.

Ultimately, accreditation ensures a level of quality, Hensch said.

'It does ensure a minimum level of competence so the public can have confidence in their medical examiner's department, that they are professional, that they are trying to be efficient and that they are trying to be responsible with the resources the county has provided them,” Hensch said. 'It shows that you are very serious about that trust in the public and maintaining that level of competence.”

Nashelsky said accreditation will become even more important in the future, when it's likely that such recognition will be a factor when applying for grant funds.