The surge in deaths from opioids like heroin, fentanyl and prescription painkillers has overwhelmed Maryland pathologists, and put them at risk of losing their accreditation because they are exceeding the number of autopsies they are allowed to conduct each year.
During the past four years, medical examiners in the state have performed roughly 100 more autopsies each compared to 2010, according to the Baltimore Sun. Employees have worked extra hours to get the work done, and national accreditors worry that the quality of the results could fall if workers don’t have enough time to perform an autopsy or if they cannot do so in a timely manner.
Autopsies are used by prosecutors in their injury and homicide cases, as well as to evaluate suicides, and overall data are used by public health officials to determine how to allocate funding.
Dr. David Fowler, Maryland’s chief medical examiner, said the state has 17 medical examiners but that six more are needed. He previously requested that the state add three pathologists, but they were not approved in the budget, which instead added funding to boost salaries for pathologists working overtime.
National standards recommend 250 autopsies per examiner. In Maryland, pathologists are slated to perform 328 autopsies this year, which also exceeds the 325 limit allowed for accreditation. In total, Maryland performed 5,439 autopsies in 2016.
Deaths related to opioids have soared in recent years in states across the country. More than 50,000 people died from a drug-related death in 2015, 33,000 of which were tied to opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In March, Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in the state.
The state has also seen a surge of homicides in Baltimore, which recorded more than 300 killings in 2015 and in 2016.
