Commissioners ask for meeting to discuss morgue

New facility would be part of new Samaritan Hospital

EPHRATA — Grant County Commissioners will meet with Samaritan Healthcare officials and commissioners to determine whether there is still time to add room for the county morgue in the new Samaritan Hospital. Commissioners discussed the issue with Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison at the regular commission meeting Tuesday morning.

Hospital officials have been working on the design for a new hospital since April, but Morrison said that as of now, there’s no space for the county’s morgue. Currently the morgue is in Samaritan Hospital. In answer to a question from County Commissioner Tom Taylor, Morrison said the omission of the morgue from the planning appears to be an oversight.

Commissioner Richard Stevens asked if Samaritan officials would be willing to have the morgue in the new hospital, and if so, how much it would cost. Taylor said the county would pay the construction costs, which Morrison estimated at about $2.5 million.

Stevens asked about a meeting with Samaritan officials, but Morrison said the design process might have reached the point where the morgue couldn’t be added. Tom Gaines, the county’s director of central services, said it might not be too late, provided the commissioners acted quickly.

If the morgue isn’t included in the new hospital, Taylor asked if Samaritan officials might be willing to allow the morgue to stay in the existing building, at least for six months or so, after the new facility is completed. Morrison said he didn’t think so.

The alternative, Morrison said, would be for the county to build its own facility.

The morgue’s current location allows the coroner’s office to use some of Samaritan’s services. Some cases require an X-ray, a service available at Samaritan, and Samaritan physicians are available to help with evaluation of the results, Morrison said. The coroner’s office also uses Samaritan’s lab for analysis. Morrison said the morgue also benefits from existing hospital security, maintenance and its biohazard disposal regimen.

The current morgue was built 20 years ago and was designed to last for 20 years, Morrison said. He added the facility is adequate for its current use but might not be in five years.

Taylor asked about the cost of equipping a new morgue. Morrison said he had only investigated the cost of X-ray equipment, and that a used machine would cost about $185,000. Lab costs were estimated at about $12,000 to $20,000 per year.

Taylor said the estimated construction cost at Samaritan was a lot of money, but that it might be cheaper in the long run, given the costs of building and maintaining a separate facility and equipment.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].