TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Office of the Medical Examiner will be getting a new building by fall of 2024, according to Pima County officials. County leaders broke ground Thursday, Dec. 8 for the $45 million facility.
In addition to serving Pima County, Cochise, Graham, LaPaz and Santa Cruz counties will also use the space, which will be more than twice the size of the current Medical Examiner's facility. According to Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Hess, the new building will meet an important need, as the number of deaths his office has seen has increased in the last ten years.
"The number of deaths reported to the Medical Examiner's office, the number of post-mortem examinations that we have performed has gone up and we just haven't had the bandwidth to respond to that, or to run schedules the way we need to," said Hess.
According to Hess, they've been anticipating a need to grow their infrastructure.
“The number of deaths from 2011 to 2021 increased by about 90%,” said Hess. “The numbers of deaths we certified in that same time increased by 40%. And the total number of post-mortem examinations increased by 30%."
The current building is about 15,000 square feet. Bodies are stored in an outside refrigerated space. The new building, designed at 34,000 square feet, will have an autopsy area in a separate 'zone' away from the administrative areas. The autopsy area will have "six stations with an observation gallery, an aseptic room, anthropology, imaging, unidentified remains storage and cold storage for up to 300 bodies," according to Pima County.
Kitchell Contractors Inc. is overseeing construction of the design by SmithGroup. The new office will be located at the southwest corner of East Milber Street and South Country Club Road within the Kino Medical Campus.
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