Unclaimed bodies at nursing homes are a chronic and growing problem for coroners and medical examiners. I wrote about this in a blog post titled Unclaimed Body Donation to Science earlier this year. That post focused on the donation of unclaimed bodies to non-profit and for-profit organizations. Coroners are increasingly looking into that option for disposition of unclaimed bodies when they can’t find next of kin or family doesn’t want to claim a deceased relative. But coroners are also finding other ways to mitigate the cost to taxpayers.
In August of this year, Luzerne County (PA) Coroner Jillian Matthews proposed various fees for coroner services for unclaimed bodies at nursing homes. Luzerne County Commissioners appointed Matthews, a lawyer, to the office of coroner after the resignation of Francis Hacken in 2022. In an interview with local news, Matthews said “The Coroner’s Office is a taxpayer funded entity not responsible for devising and implementing postmortem care plans of the residents of long-term care facilities.” The 11-member Luzerne County Council unanimously issued a Resolution confirming the proposed fee schedule.
As coroner, I often saw that nursing homes were not keeping up-to-date records on next of kin. Many had no arrangements in place in case of a resident’s death. “Call the coroner” often seemed to be the default solution, especially during the pandemic.
What do you think? If you’re a coroner, how do you address those calls from nursing homes? If you’re not a coroner, what do you think nursing homes should do about unclaimed deceased residents?