After report cites ‘deficiencies,’ Chester County coroner says her office needs more staff and more space

Chester County’s coroner is touting a failure by her office, using it to draw attention to a shortage of space and staff for those who investigate deaths in Pennsylvania’s wealthiest county.

Dr. Christina VandePol said Tuesday that her office failed to receive accreditation from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners “because of the deficiencies of its morgue and autopsy facilities” and the number of autopsies its forensic pathologists perform — it’s too high per person, according to the group’s best-practice guidelines.

“It’s very difficult for us to get things done with the situation we have,” VandePol said. “There’s only a handful of us, and a population of nearly half a million, so numbers-wise we’re not matched up.”

VandePol also raised concerns about her office’s response time to crime scenes and other reported deaths, but law enforcement officials downplayed that issue.

Coroner’s offices, much like police and fire departments, do not require accreditation by a national agency. Such certifications, however, are seen as validation of best practices in an industry, and usually require audits by outside experts in the field.

In Pennsylvania, the state’s largest — and busiest — county coroner’s offices, Philadelphia and Allegheny, are not members of the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners, a Las Vegas-based trade group.

Only five counties in Pennsylvania have been accredited by the agency: Lehigh, Lancaster, Adams, Washington. and Cambria. Of those, only Lancaster has a population larger than Chester County’s roughly 519,000.

VandePol said her predecessor, Gordon Eck, initiated the accreditation process before she took office in January 2018. She continued it, seeing it as an opportunity to “bring procedures up to standard.”

“It made us a stronger department,” she said. “And it’s helpful for the criminal justice system if they can say, ‘The information we’re relying on comes from an accredited agency.’”

Currently, VandePol’s office employs eight forensic investigators, four full-time and four part-time, with a capacity for two more part-time hires.

Unlike the counties that it borders, Chester County has no dedicated autopsy space, requiring VandePol and her staff to borrow examination and storage facilities from local hospitals. Occasionally, for specialized equipment, that requires trips to facilities in Bucks or Lehigh Counties, she said.

The audit report from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners found that the space lent to the office by Chester County Hospital is “not being maintained, nor is it suitable in size,” and the equipment “is old, rusted, and in a poor state of repair.”

Auditors also mentioned that the small amount of refrigeration space requires travel throughout the county, which “generally is inefficient and undesirable."

Though the auditors praised the quality of the autopsies performed and the reports generated from them, they urged VandePol to find a dedicated facility.

“It is strongly recommended that [Chester County] continue pursuit of this goal, not only to allow the office to become accredited, but also to provide adequate services to the citizens of the county,” the report said.

VandePol also raised concerns about the delay her office sometimes has in responding to crime scenes, especially during evening on-call hours, when only one investigator is available to cover all 760 square miles of Chester County.

But the volume of calls — around three a day, she estimated — is relatively small. And District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan said the staffing limits have had no negative impact on criminal investigations.

“We have not had any problems at a crime scene because the coroner is delayed in getting there,” Hogan said Tuesday. “In any case, the coroner plays a limited role in our crime scenes.”