County medical examiner credits CT scanner repairs with faster results and cost savings

The St. Croix County medical examiner told committee members that repairs to the office CT scanner resolved persistent errors and restored the office's ability to complete local scans that can replace some forensic autopsies. She described two recent cases in which CT interpretation allowed the office to avoid sending decedents for full autopsy and to give families direct answers more quickly.

The examiner outlined comparative costs: she said a base forensic autopsy would run about $2,500 plus ancillary testing, while a CT interpretation is $525 and Randox testing the office runs costs about $41 per test. She reported that doing scans locally has reduced reliance on outside autopsy services. (Medical Examiner) The transcript includes a line with a larger outside-lab figure that appears garbled; that figure is not restated here because it could not be verified from the record. The examiner also said county staff will again market scanning capacity to neighboring counties now that the machine is stable and technicians are available for coordinated referrals.