Mortuary Transport Services

First of all, I am surprised by the low prices this company charges for its’ services, whether to the county or otherwise. I’m glad the owner wrote in to the paper to rebutt previous comments that seemed to insinuate he was ripping off the county. The original article is not available without signing up with the paper and paying for the archive, which I don’t care to do.

Offering services to the county for coroner transportation and storage is not an easy task, as is illuminated by Brian Simmons in this article. There are more hoops to jump through doing county work than even for funeral homes, but you’re expected to have the same availability as a funeral home for viewing, storage, etc. The price is always lower for the county than through a funeral home, so I’m surprised anyone would make an issue of this.

I’ve done coroner work for Placer and San Mateo counties in California, and you still have to be just as professional as you are for a funeral home. Sometimes it’s even more sensitive, since the death is almost always an unexpected event.

It helps to have the right equipment, vehicles and personnel to do the job also. It’s not the same as picking up roadkill, so it takes a little more compassion, but it tends to be more messy work.

My first coroner call was a man in his 60s who ran head on into opposing traffic on a busy back road in Auburn. He was around my dad’s age, so it was especially impacting. The difference was, this guy had very few scabs and scars, but was missing a few teeth, and had some meth found on him as well. It was conjectured by my trainer and the sheriff that he was a dealer if not also a manufacturer in the back woods to make ends meet, and probably lost his attention or fell asleep at the wheel. The other driver’s truck was smashed in the front pretty good, but he got out just fine, and was walking around when we arrived.

We lowered a gurney to the ground, spread a body bag over the gurney, then I got his feet, my trainer got his wrists, we did a 1-2-3 count and lifted and swung him onto the gurney. We tucked him into the bag, zipped it up after putting a tag on his toe, strapped down the bag and put a cover on. Then we lifted the gurney to full height, and rolled it over to our van.

We had to then cut all his clothing at the county morgue for pictures and pre-autopsy inspection, then put him in the cold storage for autopsy on Monday by the county coroner.

I have owned Springfield Mortuary Service since 1987 and ever since that time and for many years before, our company has handled deaths for the Greene County Medical Examiner.

First of all, let me say that we have never attempted or expected to make a profit from the medical examiner calls. We have run this as a service to the county. We provide countywide coverage 24 hours a day seven days a week, and do so for $60 per call.

We also provide a holding facility for the county. We hold bodies in our refrigeration facility sometimes for months and have never charged the county a dime for this service.

Greene County maintains an autopsy table in our operating room for decomposed cases which are not allowed in Cox South. We charge only enough for this service to cover the disposal of hazardous waste from the autopsy.

We have never charged a family a fee to identify remains in the custody of the medical examiner.

After the medical examiner and law enforcement have completed their investigations, we notify the next of kin that the body is released and request that they contact their preferred funeral home. In 98 percent of the cases this is what happens and the body is transferred to the selected funeral home for viewing and services. (This is what funeral homes are for and how they make their living.) After the authorities have released these bodies they are no longer a Greene County case.

In a minority of instances, families have been unwilling or unable for whatever reasons to have the body initially transferred to a funeral home. If they want to view additionally at our facility, we will bathe the remains, perform basic grooming (shaving, etc), set the features (close the eyes and mouth). We then dress the remains in a clean hospital type gown, place it on a gurney covered with a sheet and an attractive quilt which we keep for this purpose, and place in our private viewing room. We then schedule a time for the family to come in and view. We set limits on the number of times this can be done and schedule it so as not to conflict with other activities at the mortuary service.

For this service we charge a nominal fee of $50. The only exception is if there has been an autopsy performed on the deceased and we have to suture the autopsy incisions. For this we charge an additional $50.

Most of the families we have provided this service for have been appreciative of our efforts and we have received no complaints about the charges which are explained to them in advance.

My staff and myself take our responsibility to the county very seriously. We feel we have an obligation to the families involved, the medical examiner and law enforcement personnel and the County Commission. Equally important is the fiscal responsibility we feel toward the taxpayers of Greene County. The services we provide are done so at a fraction of the cost compared to other counties of this size.

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