THE VALUE OF THE MEDICAL EXAMINER AS A MEMBER OF THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY TRAUMA MORBIDITY MORTALITY COMMITTEE

The multidisciplinary trauma peer review process collects, reviews, di scusses, and collates all morbidities and mortalities of injured patie nts to institute corrective action in a timely manner, The resultant r emedial activity may include professional education, physician counsel ing, restriction of privileges, or changes in the trauma care system, Effective corrective action necessitates timely data input from the po stmortem examination, Faced with an inordinate delay, skimpy reports, and expense in obtaining such reports from the medical examiner's offi ce, the chief medical examiner was invited to become a member of the p eer review committee, During a 12-month interval as a full-fledged mem ber of the peer review process, the medical examiner was able to provi de complete verbal reports on all deaths resulting in a synergistic be nefit to the peer review process and to the medical examiner office, T wo of 53 nonpreventable deaths were reclassified as possibly preventab le in one and preventable in the other, Four of 15 possibly preventabl e deaths were reclassified based on the medical examiner report, In tu rn, the physician members of the team were able to augment the medical examiner's knowledge in certain areas that were critical for his anal ysis of accidents or homicide, Based on these findings, the medical ex aminer is recommended as a participating member of the trauma peer rev iew committee.