Autopsy site moves to campus
Published Sept. 10, 2004
Death will move a little closer to MU's door in the next couple of years.
The medical examiner's office for Boone and Callaway counties will move from its old office on 5609 St. Charles Road to the first floor of the Medical Sciences Building on campus.
The new location will be closer to medical examiner Valerie Rao, who also works with child health in the MU Department of Pathology.
The move benefits students because they will now be able to view autopsies here on campus, Eddie Adelstein, associate professor of pathology and former Boone County medical examiner, said.
"Autopsy rates in hospitals are decreasing, and now students will have the opportunity to go to the autopsy and learn from it," Adelstein said.
The Boone County Commission approved the move earlier last month. The current contract, with Fountain Enterprises, will expire when the MU facility is renovated.
Studies determining the cost and design of the facility are under way. While actual construction should take roughly six months, the project should be completed within two years.
The tentative date for the new facility's completion is summer 2006 and there is no estimated cost for the project yet.
Adelstein said the office moved to the new facility to give Rao space to work.
"The current facilities are not adequate for the investigations Dr. Rao would be performing," Adelstein said. "Dr. Rao performs investigations at the level of an investigator for a major city."
The current facility, attached to the home of former medical examiner Jo Fountain, has been in use since 1997. Rao said it does not contain much of the equipment she likes to use and is simply too small.
MU Health Care spokesman Jeff Hoelscher said the goal was to have the "best medical examination service in the state."
Hoelscher said the new state-of-the-art location would include new lighting, new stainless steel tables, and a bigger storage facility. A camera system will be installed for depositions and teaching purposes.