Orange County officials dedicate additional $125K to address unexpected surge in dead bodies

An unexpected increase in human bodies delivered to the Orange County coroner’s office in the past year — due, in part, to COVID-19 — prompted county officials this week to increase a contract with a local body transport service by $125,000.

Since 2018, Orange-based company Traditional Funeral Services, Inc. has worked for the county on an on-call basis under an annual contract not to exceed $425,000.

But an uptick in the number of decedents being taken to the coroner caused the Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to adjust the amount upward to $550,000 for the contract period spanning April 15, 2020 to April 14, 2021.

No commentary was provided ahead of the 4-0 vote, but a staff report indicates the increase will be funded through the county’s federal CARES Act allocation.

Assistant Chief Deputy Coroner Brad Olsen on Wednesday did not want to opine on the reason for the escalation in numbers but did confirm that since the pandemic began, his office has experienced a much higher caseload than in years past.

“We had a huge increase in cases. [And] we needed some additional funding,” Olsen said. “We try to be as fiscally responsible as possible, but when people are dead, we have to go get them.”

The division investigated 912 deaths in December — a 65% increase from the same month last year. A total of 827 cases were under review in January, compared to 572 in January of 2019, according to figures provided by the department.

Those who die in the presence of medical staff or from a cause of death already known do not typically require autopsies and, therefore, fall outside the jurisdiction of the coroner’s office, Olsen explained. The rest must be retrieved and brought in for examination.

“We call on our dispatch service and have their team respond to wherever the decedent is,” he added. “Wherever my deputy coroner is going to respond, that’s where the transport team goes.”

However, during the early stages of the pandemic, the coroner’s office began posthumously testing incoming decedents, who met certain criteria, for the coronavirus and discovered a number of bodies tested positive.

Additionally, the division agreed as part of a countywide hospital mass fatality surge plan to store additional bodies in the event hospitals were overrun or needed to free up their own storage capacities.

“We had the resources here to provide that decedent storage, so hospitals had that option,” he said, indicating a total of 612 bodies were taken in since December’s surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Under previous contracts, Traditional Funeral Services charged the county $185 per call, with an additional mileage fee charged for transfers and trips outside Orange County exceeding 50 miles, according to a supervisors’ staff report.

With Tuesday’s vote, that rate will increase for the contract period running from April 15, 2021 through April 14, 2022 to $194.25, amounting to an annual not-to-exceed amount of $550,000.

Staff reports indicate that increase qualifies for funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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