The doctor who was appointed as Franklin County's coroner at the beginning of the year said he is implementing changes recommended in a report following a review of the office.
Dr. Nathaniel Overmire took over the term for the elected position when Dr. Anahi Ortiz retired before the end of the term.
Dr. Overmire was appointed by the Franklin County Commissioners, who also commissioned the report in October.
Forensic Pathology Staffing visited the facility, analyzed employee surveys, interviewed employees and compared the offices to others in the country. The report found the office needs to prepare for growing demands as the population in Franklin County grows, and also found a number of employees were not happy with their relationship with management, internal communication and outdated practices and procedures. The employees told the consultants they wanted management to listen to their concerns, to solidify policies and procedures in written documents, utilize space better and do a better job with communication.
Dr. Overmire said the report is helping him do his job.
"I do feel a little blessed having this report, having it when I first started as a guide, as a framework for understanding some of the processes and issues that had been going on in the last administration. So moving forward, I can use that as a template for improvements that we can make," he said.
The consultants found the most significant "pain points" were, "(A) perceived "us vs. them" mentality with entry-level staff and senior-level management, (an) inability to grow past entry-level positions, (a) lack of effective leadership and communication styles (and a) need for more positions to increase quality of work at FCCO," the report stated.
Dr. Overmire said he is taking the anonymous feedback seriously, and is already making some changes in operations and communication within the office. He said that’s leading to quicker turnaround time for toxicology reports, which can help produce a death certificate more quickly.
The coroner’s office went through a period of time when they were short-staffed. Several pathologists quit at once last year and they had to resort to sending bodies to other counties for autopsies.
But, Dr. Overmire said the office has moved past that issue with some new hires, and is adding staff to more evenly distribute the work flow.
He also said the study identified additional staffing needs that should help the office weather increased caseloads as the county's population grows. The office is conducting nearly twice as many autopsies a year than they were in 2015, according to annual reports.
But, Dr. Overmire said it can be hard to find and retain staff.
“The demand for forensic pathologists, the physicians who conduct the autopsies or external exams, they're in increasingly high demand. There's only approximately 500 or 600 forensic pathologists that are doing the work (in the U.S.). And we need, right now, about 1,000 to do the amount of volume that we're seeing in the country," he said.
Right now, the office has six full-time forensic pathologists and one forensic pathology assistant.
"We're meeting the need that we have right now. But, we're adding on a seventh to give us that additional cushion," Overmire said, adding that he expects to need nine pathologists eventually.
The report found the coroner’s office needs a forensic photographer, a public information officer — which has been hired, an anthropologist, an evidence technician and four new forensic investigators and technicians.
To help create a "workforce pipeline," to supply the office with qualified staff, Dr. Overmire plans to bring back internships and is working on creating a partnership with the pathology department in The Ohio State University’s medical school to create a fellowship program.
"OSU has a pathology residency, but we in Columbus, in Franklin County, don't have a forensic pathology fellowship. That's a one-year program after you finish the three years of pathology residency. So it's a workforce pipeline opportunity," he said.
Dr. Overmire said he’s working on creative ways to use his office to to assist with public health issues, like gun violence, drug overdoses and access to the type of medical care that can keep people alive and out of the coroner’s office.
"I see my role as having really strong partnerships and relationships with our public health entities, with the mayor's office, with other county officials, the county administration, the county commissioners and our state legislature, to work with them to provide them accurate data, so that they can as policymakers choose the right policies to make an impactful change in our community," he said.
Overmire said one way to combat premature death, and to reduce the number of coroner's cases in the community, is to improve access to primary care physicians.
"There's just not enough good primary care providers to go around," Overmire said. "That's one part of solving that piece of the puzzle, it's getting more folks a primary care physician who they can go to, have a good standing relationship with and help them prevent diseases that would otherwise be lethal to them.”
Overmire said he is currently on a listening tour and is collecting feedback from the community.
