About the New Medical Examiner Complex

 

Join County Commissioners and County Administrator Pat Bean on February 26 at 10 a.m. for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the new 31,500-square-foot Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Complex. Construction was completed in October 2008.

New Medical Examiner Facilities

Since 1977, the Medical Examiner’s Office had previously operated out of the 8,000-square-foot Morgan Street Facility, 401 S. Morgan St. in downtown Tampa.

The new complex features:

• More space to keep up with Hillsborough County's growth. The new facility can accommodate at least 150 bodies, compared to 40 at the old facility, which was forced to rent a refrigeration trailer for the last year to accommodate more bodies.
  
• A more professional and pleasant area to interact with the public, including a quiet room for families, law enforcement investigators, funeral home directors and others who frequent the office.
  
• A design to sustain on-site operations following a hurricane. It was built to current construction standards, on high ground and with two days worth of back up power. Crucial areas have windows that can be opened to provide ventilation should normal air handling become unavailable. The old facility was in a category 3 flood zone, relocation during an evacuation order.
  
• Capabilities to activate a mass fatality operation while maintaining routine business, eliminating the need to establish a temporary morgue at a separate location. A designated area on the complex provides room refrigeration trailers to accommodate 400 bodies, sufficient stations to allow eight autopsies to be conducted simultaneously and administrative space to manage mass casualty operations.

The new complex is located on property owned by Hillsborough County prior to construction, which eliminated the need to make an expensive land purchase. In addition, it is conveniently located between major highways and intersections, providing easy access to and from the complex. It is also on high, dry land, and less likely to experience interruptions from large events, which affected operations at the previous Medical Examiner site in downtown Tampa.

The Medical Examiner's Office is made up of a staff of 35, which includes five board certified forensic pathologists. In addition, a USF resident is assigned to the department for one year in preparation for specialization as a forensic pathologist.

About 1,450 autopsies are conducted by the Medical Examiner's Office. About 10,000 deaths occur each year in Hillsborough County.