Coroner

• No physician is in attendance.
• The attending physician was unable or unwilling to certify the cause of death.
• The attending physician has not been an actual attendance within 30 days prior to death.
• All cases in which trauma may be associated with the death; such as traffic accidents, gunshots, falls, etc. This includes inpatients who have sustained fractures at any time in the past.
• Deaths by poisoning, suspected poisoning, chemical or bacterial, industrial hazardous materials or radiation.
• All industrial accidents.
• Known or suspected suicides.
• Deaths due to contagious disease.
• Deaths due to self-induced or unexplained abortion.
• Operating room deaths and deaths that occurred during a medical procedure.
• All unexplained deaths (deaths that occurred in a healthy individual).
• Deaths that occurred within 24 hours of admission to a hospital or nursing care facility.
• Deaths in the custody of law enforcement.
• Deaths of persons in the care of a public institution.

The investigation of the death by the Coroner’s Office is an extremely important function as it is done by an independent agency who does not work for the law enforcement agency, the physician, the nursing home, the hospital, the prosecution or the defense, but works on behalf of the deceased to obtain the truth about their death.