It is also an excellent mechanism for quality assurance because we can coordinate the findings from the autopsy with the hospital care the patient received. Although I am confident that autopsies would not identify egregious errors those are obvious now they can help evaluate patient care. It certainly would not be worthwhile to perform an autopsy after every routine death. That would be costly and unnecessary, considering the sophisticated technology we have today that rightfully has eliminated the need for many autopsies. Despite the technological progress though, some cases today can only be solved through this procedure.
Any time there is a complicated, unusual, unexplained death, an autopsy is in order.
We can learn a lot by finding out what happened. The biggest barrier to breathing new life into the autopsy is cost. The federal government has decided that after death, a patient is no longer eligible for additional treatment or care, so the cost of an autopsy is not reimbursable. What s more, insurance rarely covers the procedure either. Despite it all, I am optimistic that we will see a resurgence in autopsy procedures.