The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office serves as the Medical Examiner to Ramsey and Washington County as well as the following Minnesota counties:
- Aitkin, Blue Earth, Cass, Clay, Crow Wing, Freeborn, Hubbard, Kanabec, Le Sueur, Martin, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Redwood, Waseca and Wilkin.
The office also provides forensic services and support for coroner, medical examiner and law enforcement agencies throughout greater Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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The Medical Examiner’s Office operates under the authority of Minnesota State Statutes, Chapter 390. All sudden and unexpected deaths, as well as those deaths occurring from other than natural causes within its jurisdiction, must be reported to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s office is staffed by 10 full-time investigators as well as a chief investigator. These investigators staff the office 24 hours a day, seven days a week reviewing reported deaths, preparing the necessary reports and obtaining histories on the deceased so that all reportable deaths are properly investigated. All the investigative staff have been trained in death investigation and are certified by the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI).
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office is jointly certified by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) and the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME).
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office was also recognized by LifeSource for their dedication to saving lives through organ and tissue donation. In 2016, Dr. Michael McGee and his team provided clearance for 43 organ donors, resulting in 135 lifesaving organ transplants. The team also referred 161 potential tissue donors, 51 of which were able to donate.
The National Institute of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national centralized repository and resource center for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office utilizes this database system to match missing persons with unidentified decedents.
