Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 641 - Public Health Department › Chapter 127 - County Medical Examiners › Rule 641-127.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
"Autopsy"
means the external and internal
				postmortem examination of a deceased person.
"Cause of death "
means the disease or injury
				which sets in motion the chain of events which eventually result in the death
				of a person. The physician shall consider "but for" this injury or disease the
				person would still be living.
"County medical examiner"
or
"CME"
means a medical or osteopathic physician or surgeon
				licensed in the state of Iowa and appointed by the board of supervisors to
				serve in this capacity.
"County medical examiner investigator"
or
"CME-I"
means an individual appointed by a countymedical
				examiner, with approval by the board of supervisors and the state medical
				examiner, to serve under the supervision of a county medical examiner to assist
				in death investigations.
"County of appointment"
means the county which
				requests a medical examiner to conduct an investigation, perform or order an
				autopsy, or prepare a report(s) in a death investigation case. The request may
				be authorized by the county attorney or the county medical examiner The county
				of appointment shall be the county in which the death occurred.
"Cremation "
means the technical process,
				using heat and flame, that reduces human remains to bone fragments.
"Day "
means calendar day.
"Death "
means the condition as described in
				Iowa Code section
				702.8.
"Death affecting the public interest"
means
				any death of a human being in which the circumstances are sudden, unexpected,
				violent, suspicious, or imattended, including but not limited to those deaths
				listed at Iowa Code section
				331.802(3)
				 and described as follows:
1. Violent death. Violent death includes
			 homicide, suicide, or accidental death resulting from physical, mechanical,
			 thermal, chemical, electrical, or radiation injury. A medical examiner's
			 investigation and report are required irrespective of the period of survival
			 following injury.
2. Death caused
			 by criminal abortion, including self-induced.
3. Death related to disease thought to be
			 virulent or contagious which may constitute a public hazard. Any such case
			 investigated by a medical examiner shall be reported to the department and to
			 the local health authority.
4.
			 Death that has occurred unexpectedly or from an unexplained cause. This term
			 includes the following situations:
* Death without prior medical conditions accounting for the
				death.
* Apparently instantaneous death without obvious cause.
* Death during or following an unexplained syncope or
				coma.
* Death during an unexplained, acute, or rapidly fatal
				illness.
5. Death of a
			 person confined in a prison, jail, or correctional institution.
6. Death of a person when unattended by a
			 physician during the period of 36 hours immediately preceding death.
* This term includes the following situations:
-Persons found dead without obvious or probable cause.
-Death when the person was unattended by a physician during a
				terminal illness.
- Fetal death unattended by a physician. A fetal death is a
				fetus bom dead after a gestation period of 20 completed weeks or greater or a
				fetus which weighs 350 grams or more (Iowa Code section 144.29).
* This term does not include a prediagnosed terminal or bedfast
				case in which a physician has been in attendance within 30 days preceding the
				death.
* This term does not include a terminally ill patient who was
				admitted to and received services from a hospice program as defined in Iowa
				Code section
				135J.1, if a
				physician or registered nurse employed by the program was in attendance within
				30 days preceding the death.
7. Death of a person if the body is not
			 claimed by a relative or friend.
8.
			 Death of a person if the identity of the deceased is imknown.
9. Death of a child under the age of two
			 years if death results from an imknown cause or if the circumstances
			 surrounding the death indicate that sudden infant death syndrome may be the
			 cause of death.
"Department"
means the Iowa department of
				public health.
"Deputy county medical examiner"
or
"DCME"
means an individual appointed by a county medical
				examiner, with approval by the board of supervisors and the state medical
				examiner, to assist the countymedical examiner in the performance of the county
				medical examiner's duties.
"External examination "
means a close
				inspection of the exterior of a deceased human body for the purpose of
				locating, describing, and delineating any and all injuries or other
				abnormalities. External examination of a body does not constitute an autopsy,
				even if toxicology samples are obtained.
"Fee "
means an amount to be paid to a county
				medical examiner's office as determined by the board of supervisors of the
				countyof appointment for completion of an investigation, autopsy, or report(s).
				Fees for services provided by the state medical examiner's office are
				established at
				641-126.3
				(691).
"Form ME-1"
means the Preliminary Report of
				Investigation by Medical Examiner form.
"FormME-2"
means the Medical Examiner
				Embalming Certificate form.
"Form ME-3 "
means the Permit by Medical
				Examiner for Autopsy form.
"FormME-4"
means the Preliminary Report of
				Child/Infant Death Scene Investigation form.
"Form ME-5 "
means the Cremation Permit by
				Medical Examiner form.
"FormME-6"
means the Iowa State Medical
				Examiner's Office Personal Effects form.
"Form ME-7"
means the Medication List
				form.
"Form ME-8 "
means the Body Identification
				Record form.
"Manner of death "
means the circumstances
				under which the cause of death occurred and may be specified as follows:
				natural, accident, suicide, homicide, undetermined, or pending.
"Medical care provider"
means an individual
				licensed or certified in any medical profession, including but not limited to a
				physician, physician assistant, nurse, emergency medical care provider,
				certified nurse's aide, pharmacist, physical therapist, and medical
				technologist.
"Medical examiner"
means the state medical
				examiner, deputy state medical examiner, countymedical examiner, or deputy
				countymedical examiner