County coroner's office gains accreditation

EPHRATA - The Grant County Coroner's Office is now accredited, according to a recent statement from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners.

A two-person accreditation team was in Grant County about a month ago, Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison said. The team spent three days reviewing office records and inspecting the morgue's equipment, he said.

But the accreditation process actually began about two and a half years ago, he said. His office went down a checklist of about 130 standards, Morrison said.

"It was a checklist to made sure we've got our policies and procedures to date and that our office is investigating deaths the way it's being done internationally and that we're not lagging behind the times," he commented.

Morrison said the Grant County office is the fourth office in the state to become accredited.

He said getting the office accredited was a goal of his when he was elected to the position about three years ago.

"The office had never been accredited up to that point and I wanted to make that a priority," he said. "Basically in times that we could we've been working on this and it happened so we're pretty excited about that."

The accreditation is good for five years, according to the press release.

Morrison said he is glad the office passed the accreditation process.

"It gives me reassurance that the things we're doing in our office are correct to national standards and we're not letting anything slide by that we should be investigating," he said.

Last year, his office investigated 375 deaths, Morrison said. So far this year, they have investigated about 240 deaths.

"We're getting busier but still working with a two-man office," he said. "What accreditation did was made our office run a little leaner, we're doing more with less money." Morrison said it cost about $3,000 to complete the accreditation process, but the county will see a return on that investment in the long run.

"What accreditation does is it allows us to apply for federally funded grants that we couldn't get without being accredited," he said.

Morrison said his office recently used federal grant money to purchase new autopsy equipment.

"We have five new autopsy tables that our county didn't have to pay for, it came from federal funds earmarked for those particular items," he said. "We've already seen about $6,000 from the federal grants so really we've exceeded what we thought it would be."

Morrison currently serves on the board of the state Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. He said the group is trying to get all the coroner's offices in Washington accredited as well.

"Having done that process myself it makes it easier to assist other counties," he said.