Six months after the head of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner abruptly resigned because of funding cuts and staff shortages, bodies continue to pile up at the morgue as they await testing.
There are 1,548 pending toxicology cases — a 28 percent reduction since May — when there were 2,166 pending cases.
The number of deferred cases — or those in which the medical examiner has asked for more tests — is 1,515, which is more than in April, but less than in May, said Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, interim chief for the coroner’s office, in a response to a public information request.
Of the deferred cases, 897 have awaited testing for 90 days. Another 571 have been awaiting testing for more than five months.
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While those numbers seem high, Sathyavagiswaran said they are an improvement.
“Now that toxicology is making progress, we anticipate this to improve by the start of 2017 and continue to improve as new staff are brought on board,” Sathyavagiswaran said in response to the public information request.
The coroner’s office has been under scrutiny since March, when then medical examiner-coroner, Dr. Mark Fajardo, resigned, telling reporters he left because the backlog of bodies was “nuts.”
He said bodies had piled up in the county morgue and toxicology tests were taking six months to complete because he couldn’t get additional funding from the Board of Supervisors to hire more employees.
But on Tuesday, Sathyavagiswaran — Fajardo’s interim replacement — said additional funds have now been allocated to the coroner’s department to help fill key positions.
He informed the Board of Supervisors that he is working to fill 22 new positions that will be funded with an additional $2.5 million dedicated to the coroner’s office. The critical vacancies include senior criminologists, investigators and physician pathologists.
“We are making significant progress in our toxicology lab,” Sathyavagiswaran told the board. “By the spring of next year, you should see a dramatic change.”
He also praised his staff, saying they have performed well.
“Even with the shortage of staff, the ones who are there are working very hard,” Sathyavagiswaran said.
A total of 56 positions need to be filled, he added. But it’s difficult, because of a nationwide shortage of specialists.
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According to Sathyavagiswaran, other changes have been made as well, including filling top leadership positions, outsourcing high volume toxicology testing to contract laboratories, and increasing new-hire salaries.
Because of the problems facing the department, it has struggled to maintain its accreditation.
For a department to maintain its accreditation with the National Association of Medical Examiners, each physician must perform about 250 autopsies per year and 90 percent of a department’s cases must be finalized within 90 days.
Sathyavagiswaran said in his response that the department is preparing for a review of its accreditation.
