Brazos County Commissioners move forward with plans to build medical examiner’s facility

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -Brazos County Commissioners met Tuesday to approve using $24 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to build a new medical examiner facility.

It’s long been a desire for officials to bring a medical examiner’s facility to Brazos County. For more than a decade county leaders have discussed the possibility but the timing wasn’t quite right and the money wasn’t there.

County leaders say a toxicology lab and medical examiner’s office are long overdue and vital to the public health and safety of residents.

Over 200 autopsies are outsourced to the Travis County Medical Examiners’ office in Austin every year. The Travis County MEO currently serves Brazos and 45 other counties with their death-related investigations, since they may include an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.

All Brazos County Commissioners say the facility is a top priority for the county but one Texas medical examiner says building a facility from the ground up can have its challenges.

Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, M.D. is the chief medical examiner for Fort Bend County and has worked as a forensic pathologist for 27 years. He says he thought it was important to speak out when he heard that Brazos County was considering building a facility.

“I like to see better death investigations around the state of Texas where everyone is becoming more forensically aware of how things can go wrong,” said Pustilnik.

Pustilnik says the cost of building and maintaining a facility can be a challenge and says there are better options like joining a medical examiner district or outsourcing investigations to facilities like his.

“You save the building cost, you save the maintenance cost, the cost for operating the system,” said Pustinik. they’re greater {the cost} than what you had before under the justice of the peace system but they’re much less than what you’d have if you started your own medical examiner system.”

Peters says Brazos County having its own facility is well worth the cost because the county can vet its own doctors, staff, and investigators which is important when testifying in court cases.

“We have no control over anybody that does that at any other location. We will have some control over that. It’s a better use of the county money to actually have a medical examiner’s office local,” said Peters.

Pustilnik says there are also staffing challenges being seen across the county within the pathology field.

“Every medical examiner’s office in the country has been trying to hire new forensic pathologists and there is, there are just none available,” Pustilnik said.

Judge Peters says he does not believe hiring challenges or attracting talent to the county will be an issue considering the partnership and opportunities that could be available with Texas A&M which has expressed interest in the project since the start.

“I don’t know of any other university that has coordinated with counties in the creation of a medical examiner’s office to teach out of there,” Peters said.

The 16,000-square-foot facility would have the capability to perform over 400 autopsies per year from not only Brazos County but surrounding counties as well. Should Brazos County open a medical examiner’s office, surrounding counties like Burleson, Grimes, Lee, Milam, Robertson, and Washington could have a closer option for their autopsy services, creating revenue for the county.

Starting out, Brazos County would hire one forensic pathologist, two investigators, and three support positions, with plans of adding an additional forensic pathologist, investigator, and autopsy assistant by 2030.

Peters says the county is currently working with Texas A&M and other stakeholders on a location for the facility as they move forward with the project.

“We’re currently investigating locations and we’re doing soil analysis and all those sorts of things and that’s all the things that we have to do prior to actually picking a location,” said Peters.