Medical Examiner Officer

Job overview

The Medical Examiner Officer (MEO) role is to support the Lead Medical Examiner Officer in the daily operational activity of the Medical Examiner (ME) service.

The MEO will work in partnership with the Mortuary, Bereavement Service, on site Coroners officers, Registrars, local spiritual/faith representatives & funeral services to provide streamlined services for bereaved families.

To work with the Palliative Care team and support the End of Life Care Strategy where this relates to the Medical Examiner Service.

To be a central point of contact for the relatives of deceased patients, coordinating communications with other services and providing a seamless and compassionate experience for the bereaved.

Through delegated responsibility the MEO will scrutinise the patient record and prioritise cases of concern or those for potential Serious Investigation or Coronial investigation to the ME.

With delegated responsibility from the Lead MEO, to refer mandatory cases for SJR Mortality.

Review and also an additional minimum of 20% of cases per speciality. To work within the service policies, guidelines and protocols for the medical examiner function.

To support the Lead MEO in monitoring performance and developing assurance reports for relevant internal and external stakeholders as required.

Review the services provided with the Lead MEO and make suggestions for continual improvement

Main duties of the job

To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient’s death. Work with medical examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation.

To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records to identify clinical and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required, for scrutiny by the medical examiner.

To assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), Clinical Governance teams and the Learning Disability Review Teams (LeDeR).

To refer patients to the coroner for further investigation on approval by the medical examiner

Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of users of the medical examiner system to ensure equality to any particular group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient’s death. Work with medical examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation.

To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records to identify clinical and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required, for scrutiny by the medical examiner.

To assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), Clinical Governance teams and the Learning Disability Review Teams (LeDeR).

To refer patients to the coroner for further investigation on approval by the medical examiner

Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of users of the medical examiner system to ensure equality to any particular group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability