Sponsored by:
Senator JOSEPH F. VITALE
District 19 (Middlesex)
Senator FRED H. MADDEN, JR.
District 4 (Camden and Gloucester)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Gordon
SYNOPSIS
Provides for uniform testing and reporting of drug overdose deaths and consolidated service purchasing by medical examiners, and expands list of places where State Medical Examiner may be authorized to use lab facilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the operations of State and county medical examiners and amending P.L.1967, c.234.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 3 of P.L.1967, c.234 (C.52:17B-80) is amended to read as follows:
3. a. The State Medical Examiner shall have general supervision over the administration of and shall enforce the provisions of [this act. He] P.L.1967, c.234 (C.52:17B-78 et seq.). The State Medical Examiner shall have general supervision over all county medical examiners. [He]
b. Each county medical examiner, and any personnel employed by the county medical examiner’s office, shall cooperate fully with the State Medical Examiner, shall comply with directives, guidelines, standards, and protocols issued by the State Medical Examiner, and shall promptly provide the State Medical Examiner with any case information that the State Medical Examiner requests or deems necessary.
c. The State Medical Examiner shall establish uniform standards and protocols for the conduct of autopsies, and shall establish uniform standards and protocols applicable to the testing and reporting of deaths, including, but not limited to, fatalities resulting from drug overdose, drug toxicity, and sudden unexpected infant death.
d. In accordance with the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), the State Medical Examiner shall promulgate such rules and regulations as [he] the State Medical Examiner may deem to be necessary to effectuate the provisions of [this act] P.L.1967, c.234 (C.52:17B-78 et seq.).
(cf: P.L.1967, c.234, s.3)
2. Section 4 of P.L.1967, c.234 (C.52:17B-81) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. The Attorney General shall provide the State Medical Examiner with such laboratories, furniture, equipment, records, and supplies as may be required in the conduct of [his] the State Medical Examiner’s office. The Attorney General may, if [he deems it] deemed thereby to be advisable [to do so], enter into agreements with the State Department of Health [or] , with any State-operated facility, college, or school of medicine, or [public hospital] with any licensed health care facility for the use of certain of its laboratories, morgues, and other technical facilities, and space in its buildings as offices and laboratories for the State Medical Examiner and [his] any staff employed by the State Medical Examiner. In the discretion of the Attorney General, the State Medical Examiner and [his] any assistants thereof may be made available to [such] the educational institutions identified in this subsection for the teaching of legal medicine and other subjects closely related to their duties.
b. The State Medical Examiner shall provide county medical examiners with the opportunity to purchase toxicology or other laboratory testing services as part of a contract that is entered into on behalf of the State, pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1969, c.104 (C.52:25-16.1), for the purchase of such services.
(cf: P.L.1967, c.234, s.4)
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would provide for the uniform testing and reporting of drug overdose deaths, and the use of consolidated service purchasing, by medical examiners in the State. The bill would also expand the list of places where the State Medical Examiner may be authorized to use laboratory and office facilities. The bill implements a recommendation issued by the Governor’s Task Force on Drug Abuse Control.
Specifically, the bill would clarify that it is the duty of each county medical examiner, and of personnel employed by the county medical examiner’s office, to cooperate fully with the State Medical Examiner, to comply with directives, guidelines, standards, and protocols issued by the State Medical Examiner, and to promptly provide the State Medical Examiner with any case information that the State Medical Examiner requests or deems necessary.
The bill would further require the State Medical Examiner to establish uniform standards and protocols for the conduct of autopsies, and to establish uniform standards and protocols applicable to the testing and reporting of deaths, including, but not limited to, fatalities resulting from drug overdose, drug toxicity, and sudden unexpected infant death, with which county medical examiner’s offices would be required to comply.
The bill would also require the State Medical Examiner to provide county medical examiners with the opportunity to purchase toxicology or other laboratory testing services as part of a contract that is entered into on behalf of the State, pursuant to existing law, for the purchase of such services. The Attorney General would also be authorized to enter into agreements with the Department of Health, with any State-operated facility, college, or school of medicine, or with any licensed health care facility for the use of its laboratories, morgues, and other technical facilities, and for the use of space in its buildings as offices and laboratories for the State Medical Examiner and any staff employed by the State Medical Examiner. Current law authorizes the Attorney General to only enter into such agreements with the Department of Health and a State-operated college or school of medicine.
The bill would also make technical corrections to update phraseology and include a citation in the existing law.