The state of Massachusetts has made some changes in practice that affect the work of funeral directors in the state.  The state mentions that these changes are for public health sake and will be effective until rescinded or until Gov. Charlie Baker terminates the state of emergency he declared on March 10.

You can read an article on the changes from the Worcester Telegram here.

The first change in practice is that the State of Massachusetts will relax its requirements on mortuary workers that all caskets must be open  and viewed prior to a cremation.  The state determined that this would require workers to use valuable personal protection equipment (PPE) that might be better used in different situations — around the mortuary and in health care.

Earlier, on March 23, the state had relaxed the requirement that funeral directors wait 48 hours to perform a cremation after the cremation had been authorized by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s (OCME).  The OCME office stated that they had requested this measure believing it was necessary to keep the death care system functioning.

Another change, that is causing some consternation among Worcester funeral directors, is that the Medical Examiner’s Worcester office has been closed until further notice.  The Worcester branch of the OCME is located inside the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and is being closed for the time being because of the risk of COVID-19 to patients and workers in that facility.

All medical examiner cases are being routed to the new Westfield facility of the OCME which is 60 miles from Worcester.  One funeral director, Peter A. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam & Maloney mentions that it is “costly and impractical” for him to send staff to Westfield on a regular basis.

According to the article, “State law requires the medical examiner or a designee to view every body set to be cremated and make an inquiry as to how the person died, regardless of whether the office elected to investigate at the time of death”.  The medical examiner charge for that service is $75 – which is on top of the $200 state cremation fee.

More death care in the news:

• No hugs, no handshakes:  For grieving families coronavirus makes hard times harder.  Chattanooga Times Free Press.
• Funeral Director:  We’ve never had anything like this in our industry.  Daily Hampshire Gazette.
• Thousands of urns, cremation stats, spur questions of coronavirus toll on China. The Daily Wire.
• Obituary – Mark Justen, Justen Funeral Homes, Illinois.  Nothwest Herald, Crystal Lake, Illinois.
• Wuhan COVID-19 death toll may be in tens of thousands data on cremations and urn shipments suggest. Newsweek.

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