

OUR SERVICES
SERVING NASHVILLE TENNESSEE & DAVIDSON COUNTY
PUBLIC HEALTH & EDUCATION
Forensic Medical protects the health and safety of citizens its serves through the investigation of sudden and unexpected deaths and from deaths occurring in health care facilities. Forensic Medical performs substantially more autopsies than are performed in all the hospitals in the communities it serves. On average, between one-third and one-half of all autopsies performed reveal natural causes of death rather than deaths due to physical or chemical injury. These findings are submitted to the appropriate federal, state and local agencies, which then use the data to determine how to best utilize limited public resources for the protection of the public.
Forensic Medical provides information to the medical community through participation in hospital morbidity and mortality conferences, child death review boards and public health forums. Forensic Medical goals are to heighten the early identification of communicable diseases and the prevention of child abuse and decrease preventable child deaths. Forensic Medical pathologists actively participate in local and state multidisciplinary child fatality review teams. Additionally when a death results from a defective consumer product, malfunctioning medical equipment or industrial accidents, we report these to the proper authorities to assist in making our communities safer.
All Forensic Medical facilities are regional forensic centers and as such serves counties by providing continuing education to county medical examiners, justices of the peace, law enforcement, death investigators and district attorneys through seminars covering all aspects of forensic science.
In the Nashville NAME accredited forensic center, Forensic Medical trains Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical Schools’ pathology residents in forensic science.
FORENSIC FACILITY MANAGEMENT
- Provide the services/operation of a medical forensic center
- Provide a transition plan for assuming contracted responsibilities
- Develop and maintain mass casualty and mass disaster plans
- Provide expert consultation about morgue planning and new medical examiner facilities
- Recruit and staff with forensic pathologists and support personnel – provide effective and efficient forensic pathology services by motivating a team of professionally skilled employees who consistently meet high quality standards
- Provide training for autopsy technicians
- Establish autopsy standards that fulfill the legal requirements of the facility/state/county/city
- Set guidelines that fulfill the needs of the law enforcement agencies that interact with the facility
Forensic Medical is a professional company who provides effective and efficient medical examiner and forensic pathology services. Our company recognizes that recruitment and retention of high-quality personnel is critical to establishing a forensic medical practice that is above reproach, and has established a team management approach of professionals who consistently meet high quality standards in their quest to provide the services and operation of a forensic pathology service organization.
Our staff can provide a transition plan for assuming contracted responsibilities from a previous contractor. Through our experience we can provide expert consultation about morgue planning and construction of new medical examiner facilities. Our staff has been integral in the development of mass casualty and mass disaster plans and have been involved in both tabletop and hands-on disaster training.
Our staff has developed forensic investigation and autopsy standards that fulfill the legal requirements of state and county agencies and provided training in death investigation and autopsy technical services as well as set guidelines that fulfill the needs of the law enforcement agencies that interact with our facilities.
FORENSIC AUTOPSIES
In Tennessee, a medicolegal or forensic autopsy may be ordered by a county medical examiner, the state medical examiner, or by the appropriate district attorney’s office. County medical examiners are physicians appointed to the post who are responsible for certification of cause and manner of death in cases of unusual, unexpected, or unnatural deaths, which include homicides, suicides, accidents, and deaths in otherwise healthy people. Many such cases may require an autopsy for accurate and complete determination of the cause of death.
MEDICAL EXAMINER SERVICES
Cases that are within Medical Examiner Jurisdiction include “deaths under suspicious, unnatural, or unusual circumstances” (TCA 38-7-108). This includes deaths caused by any type of violence or trauma, suddenly when in apparent health, deaths of infants and children, deaths related to employment or job injuries, persons in jail or custody, deaths believed to represent a public health threat, or deaths caused by abuse or neglect. This means that if any discrete injury, drug use, or any other external event contributes in any way to death, the case should be reported to the Medical Examiner’s Office. The following list represents the most common types of deaths that will fall under medical examiner jurisdiction:
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Suicidal injuries (gunshot wounds, overdose, etc.) -
Blunt trauma from motor vehicle collisions -
Overdose from prescription medication or illicit drugs, no matter the duration of hospitalization -
Trauma from falls (including subdural hematomas and hip fractures) -
Sudden death in persons with no known medical history -
Sudden death in children or infants, even those with known medical history -
Any indication or suspicion of neglect or abuse -
Any person in custody or incarcerated -
Any of the above types, regardless of the time elapsed between the traumatic event and death (e.g. sepsis from decubitus ulcers due to quadriplegia from gunshot wound 15 years prior)
PRIVATE & HOSPITAL AUTOPSIES
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To better understand the natural disease or disease process that caused death -
To provide information about possible inherited or genetic diseases, allowing other family members to seek testing and/or treatment -
To investigate possible medical treatment complications -
To assist in civil proceedings regarding the death
EXPERT CONSULTATION TESTIMONY
- Exhumation autopsy
- 2nd autopsy
- Expert witness
Forensic Medical is staffed by physicians who are certified by the American Board of Pathology in both Anatomic and Forensic Pathology and who hold faculty appointments at large teaching hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to performing more than 6000 postmortem examinations each year, including medicolegal, private, and hospital-requested autopsies, the Medical Examiners of Forensic Medical Management Services, PLC also routinely provide expert medicolegal consultation services. These may concern a wide array of cases, including performing second autopsies and exhumation autopsies, evaluating non-lethal injuries, and reviewing medical records and autopsy reports prepared by other physicians.
Requests for expert witness consultation services may be accepted from other physicians, family members of the deceased, attorneys, insurance companies, and law enforcement agencies from across the country. Consultation services are tailored to each situation, and as such may range from making a simple explanatory phone call to offering complex expert witness testimony in both civil and criminal cases.
For more information, contact us at contact@forensicmed.com.
SERVICES OFFERED
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Public Health and Education
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Forensic Facility Management
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Medical Examiner Services
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Forensic Autopsies
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Private and Hospital Autopsies
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Expert Consultation Testimony