Reporting to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME)
Who must report:
Anyone with knowledge of an unreported medicolegal death has a duty to report it. For the following health care professionals, failure to report is punishable by fine and is reportable to their applicable board of registration:
- Hospital administrators
- Nurses
- Physicians
- Social workers (Dept. of Children and Families)
What to report:
Any medicolegal death (as outlined in M.G.L. c. 38, §3) that you have knowledge of. This includes:
- Death where criminal violence appears to have taken place, regardless of the time interval between the incident and death, and regardless of whether such violence appears to have been the immediate cause of death, or a contributory factor thereto;
- Death by accident or unintentional injury, regardless of time interval between the incident and death, and regardless of whether such injury appears to have been the immediate cause of death, or a contributory factor thereto;
- Suicide, regardless of the time interval between the incident and death;
- Death under suspicious or unusual circumstances;
- Death following an unlawful abortion;
- Death related to occupational illness or injury;
- Death in custody, in any jail or correctional facility, or in any mental health or mental retardation institution;
- Death where suspicion of abuse of a child, family or household member, elder person or disabled person exists;
- Death due to poison or acute or chronic use of drugs or alcohol;
- Skeletal remains;
- Death associated with diagnostic or therapeutic procedures;
- Sudden death when the decedent was in apparent good health;
- Death in any public or private conveyance;
- Fetal death, as defined in M.G.L. c. 111, §202, where the period of gestation has been 20 weeks or more or where fetal weight is 350 grams or more;
- Death of children under the age of 18 years from any cause;
- Any person found dead;
- Death in an emergency treatment facility, medical walk-in center, child care center or under foster care
(OCME may add to this list by regulation.)
How to report:
Immediately notify OCME, or the medical examiner designated to the location where the death has occurred, of the facts concerning the time, place, manner, circumstances and cause of the death.
Contact:
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Headquarters
720 Albany Street
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 267-6767
Toll-free Phone: (800) 962-7877
Fax: (617) 266-6763
(See the OCME Website for other office locations.)
Resources:
OCME Website
Laws: M.G.L. c. 38, §3505 CMR § 1-4
