Who Should Sign Death Certificates?

I happened to read an article in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch where Ohio coroners are complaining because some doctors, including emergency physicians, are refusing to sign death certificates listing a patient’s cause of death. The coroners are concerned because they are being “burdened” with hundreds of extra cases every year that they must handle. And if other doctors don’t sign off on the cause of death, sometimes it takes two months for them to examine records, wait for test results, and make a final ruling on a patient’s death. The treating physicians reportedly use the excuses that they haven’t seen the patients in several months or they weren’t there when the person died. Some emergency physicians expressed concern about liability if the wrong cause of death was listed. The coroners used the article to try to add a guilt trip on doctors who won’t sign a death certificate by stating that the reluctant doctors aren’t inconveniencing the coroner, they’re inconveniencing a family. Baloney. If, according to the article, it takes coroners sometimes TWO MONTHS to determine a cause of death, then how can coroners reasonably expect other physicians to determine the cause of death on the spot? How can an emergency physician determine the cause of a patient’s death just by performing CPR on a patient for 20-30 minutes? As far as death certificates apply to emergency medicine, if a patient comes in and has a heart a...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Medical-Legal Source Type: blogs