title: The value of the medical examiner as a member of the multidisciplinary trauma morbidity-mortality committee.
abstract: The multidisciplinary trauma peer review process collects, reviews, discusses, and collates all morbidities and mortalities of injured patients to institute corrective action in a timely manner. The resultant remedial activity may include professional education, physician counseling, restriction of privileges, or changes in the trauma care system. Effective corrective action necessitates timely data input from the postmortem examination. Faced with an inordinate delay, skimpy reports, and expense in obtaining such reports from the medical examiner's office, the chief medical examiner was invited to become a member of the peer review committee. During a 12-month interval as a full-fledged member of the peer review process, the medical examiner was able to provide complete verbal reports on all deaths resulting in a synergistic benefit to the peer review process and to the medical examiner office. Two of 53 nonpreventable deaths were reclassified as possibly preventable in one and preventable in the other. Four of 15 possibly preventable deaths were reclassified based on the medical examiner report. In turn, the physician members of the team were able to augment the medical examiner's knowledge in certain areas that were critical for his analysis of accidents or homicide. Based on these findings, the medical examiner is recommended as a participating member of the trauma peer review committee.
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D003334:Coroners and Medical Examiners; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*