The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is the

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

of the

government of Oklahoma The government of the U.S. State of Oklahoma, established by the Oklahoma Constitution, is a republican democracy modeled after the federal government of the United States. The state government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and ...

(USA) responsible for investigating sudden, unexpected, violent or suspicious deaths. In this capacity, OCME provides support services to State law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and public health officials.

Overview

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was created by the

Oklahoma Legislature The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 sta ...

in 1961 but did not receive funding to become operational until 1967. The Chief Medical Examiner must be a licensed

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, trained and certified in

forensic pathology Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a corpse. A post mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases an ...

Board of Medicolegal Investigations

The Board of Medicolegal Investigations is responsible for governing the operations of OCME and for setting policy which the Chief Medical Examiner executes. It is the responsibility of the Board to appoint and dismiss the Chief Medical Examiner. All members of the Board receive no compensation for their services. *The Director of the State Bureau of Investigation *The State Commissioner of Health *The Dean of the College of Medicine of the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

*The President or Dean of the

Oklahoma State University - Center for Health Sciences Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS) is a public medical school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It also has a branch campus in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Founded in 1972, OSU-CHS is part of the Oklahoma State University System. OSU-CHS off ...

*The President of the

Oklahoma Bar Association The Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA) is the integrated (mandatory) bar association of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. History The Oklahoma Territory Bar Association and the Indian Territory Bar Association merged in 1904 to form the Oklahoma Bar Ass ...

*The President of the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association *The President of the Oklahoma State Medical Association *A funeral director appointed by the

Oklahoma State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

Administration

The Board appoints a Chief Medical Examiner, who is the chief executive of the OCME.

Powers and duties

Under Oklahoma statute, deaths of the types listed below must be reported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The Office has the authority to further investigate for the benefit of the public health, as funding, staffing, facilities, and other regulations allow. * Violent deaths, whether apparently homicidal, suicidal or accidental including deaths due to thermal, chemical, electrical or radiational injury and deaths due to criminal abortions, whether self-induced or not. * Deaths under suspicious, unusual or unnatural means. * Deaths related to disease which might constitute a threat to public health. * Deaths unattended by a licensed physician (

D.O. Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO or D.O., or in Australia DO USA) is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licens ...

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

) for fatal or potentially fatal illness. * Deaths of persons after unexplained coma. * Deaths that are medically unexpected and that occur during a therapeutic procedure. * Deaths of any inmate occurring in any place of penal incarceration. * Deaths of persons whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea, transported out of state or otherwise made ultimately unavailable for pathological study.

Finance and staff

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was authorized a budget of $6.2 million for State fiscal year 2012. The

authorized the agency to employ 77

full time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a wo ...

positions for that period.2013 Oklahoma State Budget

Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is a government agency which manages and supports the basic functioning of the government of Oklahoma. Under the leadership of the Oklahoma Secretary of Agency Accountability, OMES p ...

, pg 369

References

External links

Office of the Chief Medical Examiner official website
Medical examiners 1962 establishments in Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-gov-stub