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Medical Examiner

The Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner (ACOME) is an independent resource responsible for determining the cause and manner of death in all cases other than those that are natural and certified by a licensed physician. The objective is accomplished through thorough medicolegal death investigation utilizing the combined and coordinated resources of scene investigation, autopsy, and forensic laboratories.

Mission

The Office of the Medical Examiner pursues truth in science through respect, compassion, transparency, and integrity.

Vision

The Office of the Medical Examiner strives to exceed customer expectations by being the benchmark in medicolegal death investigations; forensic, clinical, and environmental analyses; methods development, process optimization, and sound business practices. The Office will be foremost in the delivery of these services to our client base through a continual review and update of evidence based practice standards along with input from Medical Examiner/Coroner systems and standards promulgated by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) and ISO/IEC 17025 and 17020.

Objectives

The Office of the Medical Examiner is an independent government organization providing the people of Allegheny County with reliable, timely, and thorough services including medicolegal death investigations, autopsies, forensic, clinical, and environmental analyses, consultations, and expert testimony. The legally established responsibility of the Office of the Medical Examiner is to determine the Cause and Manner of deaths. Additionally the Office is responsible for disseminating knowledge to promote education and research into key public health and safety concerns such as gun violence, drug overdoses, and suicides.

Structure

Organizational Structure

Reports

ACOME Annual Reports

Medicolegal Death Investigations

The Office of the Medical Examiner is responsible for investigating all deaths in the county except for those that are clearly natural and have a physician to issue the death certificate. Other violent, accidental, sudden, unexpected, or medically unattended deaths must be reported to, and fall under the jurisdiction of, ACOME. We also conduct forensic analyses on evidence from crime scenes to assist law enforcement, judicial court systems, and health and environmental agencies.

In addition to providing medicolegal death investigation services, ACOME provides state-of-the-art forensic and environmental laboratories and services to effectively assist law enforcement, the judicial court systems, and health and environmental agencies.

Reporting a Death

In most cases, a doctor, hospital, or police department will report a death. If none of these are involved, you may need to contact the Office of the Medical Examiner directly.