Tissue donation program could pay off for county

Under a plan that was expected to be approved Wednesday morning, the Ozaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office will work with a Milwaukee nonprofit to collect tissue from people who died, generating up to an estimated $25,000 annually for the county.

According to the proposal presented by county Medical Examiner Luke Warnke to the Public Safety Committee, the agreement with Versiti of Wisconsin calls for the county to be paid $500 every time a tissue collection is performed in the county’s Autopsy Suite, located in the Justice Center in Port Washington.

In addition, the county would be reimbursed $300 for referring a case to Versiti, $150 for generating a toxicology or other report and $159 for transporting a body.

Warnke estimated that the agreement would generate between $10,000 and $25,000 a year.

“It’s not revenue, technically because much of it is a reimbursement, but anytime you can offset costs, that’s a good thing,” Warnke said.

Autopsies for Ozaukee County are done in Walworth or Milwaukee counties, Warnke said.

Tissue collection occurs before the autopsy and is performed by Versiti employees, he said.

Only skin, bone and eyes are collected, not organs such as hearts or livers, he said.

Tissue is collected within 12 hours of death, he said.

“The donors are generally going to be people who die in Ozaukee County unless Versiti brings a decedent to our office from another county,” Warnke said.

“They may have registered with the state of Wisconsin to be a donor or they may be on record with Versiti to be a donor. Family has the right to make the decision for the deceased after death,” Warnke said.

There have been 34 autopsies performed this year for Ozaukee County of 154 death investigations as of Aug. 14, he said. Of those, about 100 would have been eligible for the program.

Warnke, a forensic investigator since 2013 in the Milwaukee County’s Medical Examiner’s Office, became the county’s first appointed medical examiner, replacing the elected coroner position.

The County Board voted in spring last year to switch from an elected coroner to an appointed medical examiner.

The change allowed the county to establish qualifications for the position, something that couldn’t be done for an elected position. The only requirement for an elected coroner is that the candidate be 18 years old and a county resident.

Neither a coroner or a medical examiner are required to be a medical doctor.

The medical examiner’s duties include responding to death scenes that meet certain criteria, initiating investigations when appropriate, documenting the circumstances of death, determining the cause and manner of death and whether additional investigation or an autopsy is warranted.

It also includes interacting with the deceased person’s family and law enforcement, attorneys, physicians and signs death certificates and cremation permits.