Bubbaworld

The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office is considering a penny wise, pound foolish plan to stop performing autopsies in Tulsa.

According to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffery Gofton this plan is being considered as a way of cutting costs by performing all autopsies in Oklahoma City.

And while the Medical Examiner’s Office may save a few bucks, the increased costs to the taxpayers of Oklahoma in both dollars and frustration will be immense.

In case Dr. Gofton has not noticed, motor fuels are at record highs of recent. It costs more, a lot more to travel from Tulsa to Oklahoma City and back than it did just a year ago. Yet this half-baked plan on the part of the Medical Examiner’s office will result in lots of trips for human remains from Tulsa, to Oklahoma City and back. And not just for the deceased of Tulsa but also from every other eastern Oklahoma county, city and town that has been serviced by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Tulsa.

And it is not just the bodies of the deceased that will be traveling back and forth to and from Oklahoma City. Police officers will be making numerous extra trips to collect finger prints, evidence and autopsy results. Not only will these additional trips be expensive from a transportation point of view but also from a “less officers on the streets” point of view. This will especially be the case for small police departments that lack officers to spare for half a shift or longer for the drive to Oklahoma City and back.

Then there is the frustration factor for families of the deceased whose suffering will be extended by a requirement to take the deceased to Oklahoma City, wait who knows how long for an autopsy to be performed and then wait again for the remains to be returned to Tulsa to be turned over to a funeral service.

Funeral directors are on record in news media reports as saying that a plan to perform all autopsies in Oklahoma City will result in funerals being delayed. There’s little chance such a plan would not result in delays, as dead bodies will have to be shipped repeatedly between Tulsa and Oklahoma City with attendant delays at each step of the way.

Ceasing to perform autopsies in Tulsa may well save a little money for the Medical Examiner’s Office. Undoubtedly it will dramatically increase costs, both monetary and emotional for everyone else.

And that’s no bargin – it is penny wise and pound foolish…