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Kittitas (pronounced 'KITT-i-tass') County is located in central Washington State. It spans from the lush forested Cascade Mountains to the upper Yakima River Valley plains and the Columbia River.
Kittitas County, WA - 03/14/2023 - Rural counties in Washington State are having to deal with a lack of forensic pathologists, and the resultant backlog of cases when they try to schedule autopsies or receive final autopsy reports. State Senate Bill 5523 addresses this problem and is aimed at providing much needed relief.
Coroners in Kittitas County and many other rural counties in Washington State have to stand in line to schedule autopsies, often waiting extended periods to get on the schedule. According to Kittitas County Coroner Nick Henderson, “There is currently only one traveling forensic pathologist available to do autopsies in Central Washington, he serves several counties in Western Washington as well. As little as five years ago there were three pathologists sharing the load and availability was never a problem. Due to retirements and a lack of pathologists to take over their work, we are now down to only one. His schedule is full, often involving as many as 4, or more, autopsies per day, in addition to cross-state travel to reach the autopsy facility. Final autopsy reports can take months to be completed due to the load. Coroner’s office employees must transport bodies long distances as well, to wherever the autopsies are being performed today.” Henderson added, “we are now faced with having to make a decision, we have to answer the question, is there any way we can possibly certify the cause and manner of death in this case without performing an autopsy? It forces us to make a choice about how accurate do we need to be? What if we are wrong? What are the repercussions, is it a potential criminal case, are there civil issues, is this death a result of inherited genetic traits the family needs to know about? In most cases the only way to be 100% sure about the true cause of death is to perform an autopsy. We can’t afford to be wrong, there are too many factors dependent on our decision and the families of our decedents need to know what happened to their loved one. This is a real problem.” The shortage of forensic pathologists in Washington State has been a problem for a number of years, with no potential solution in sight. The Washington State Senate recently unanimously passed Senate Bill 5523, addressing this critical shortage of forensic pathologists in the state, especially in rural areas. Last week the bill passed the senate and has been referred to committee in the house of representatives. The bill is intended to incentivize scientists to enter the forensic pathologist profession by alleviating their student loan burden. It creates a student loan repayment program for board-certified forensic pathologists who work in Washington counties with identified shortages of service. Pathologists would be eligible for up to $25,000 student loan repayment for four years. The bill also allocates money to the State Department of Health to market Washington state to potential forensic pathologists, with a focus on rural and underserved counties. Additionally, it commissions a study of the current pathologist shortage including seeking to identify steps that can be taken to foster a robust forensic pathologist community in our state. Henderson said, “Washington isn’t the only state with a critical shortage of pathologists. We are competing with many other states which are attempting to solve the same problem.” “In Kittitas County we are exploring the possibility of building a state-of-the-art regional autopsy facility with the goal of providing a place that would be convenient for our surrounding counties as well as pathologists. Our hope is that we could attract a full time committed pathologist to this area, providing some relief for counties that are having such difficulty scheduling cases currently. This senate bill would directly benefit such an effort.”
Kittitas County, from the Cascades to the Columbia, and online at http://www.co.kittitas.wa.us
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Contact: Nick Henderson, nick.henderson@co.kittitas.wa.us509-933-8200
