For the second time, Dr. Caleb Cantrell has been named as DeKalb County Medical Examiner. The announcement was made last Thursday night at the County Commission’s workshop meeting, where County Mayor Matt Adcock told the commission that he again appointed Dr. Cantrell subject to approval of the commission.
Dr. Cantrell had been named to the position last summer, but did not serve due to public outcry over the suspension of then medical examiner Dr. Denise Dingle. The commission voted not to uphold the suspension and return Dingle to the position, but Dr. Dingle later resigned due to a new county policy over how the medical examiner and medical death investigator are to be paid per call.
After the controversy, Dr. Cantrell was again asked to fill the position, but he hesitated due to policy concerns. According to county officials, no other local physicians have been willing to accept the role. Dr. Adele Lewis of Nashville, the State Medical Examiner, has filled the position in recent weeks, but informed Mayor Adcock that she will no longer continue doing the work for the county after April 30.
With a revision in the medical examiner policy, Mayor Adcock said Dr. Cantrell has again decided to accept the offer. Under the previous policy which went into effect February 1, “$200 will be paid to the Medical Examiner per decedent. The $200 will be $100 for the Medical Examiner and $100 for the Medical Investigator. E-911 will notify the Medical Examiner. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for contacting a Medical Investigator on each body. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for paying the Medical Investigator within 30 days of receiving the money from the county. A DeKalb County employee (EMS) can be the Medical Investigator as long as they are not on the DeKalb County clock during the investigation.”
“Dr. Cantrell had been concerned about having to pay 1099 employees, having an accountant, and issuing tax statements, etc. He said I’m not a tax person. I am a doctor. He said it was already an inconvenience to be the medical examiner, and he doesn’t really want to do it. He said the only reason he would do it is to serve the community,” said County Mayor Adcock.
The new policy states that “The DeKalb County Medical Examiner will be paid $100 per decedent and the Medical Death Investigators will be paid an hourly rate based off their ambulance service salary. Medical Death Investigators must be approved by the Medical Examiner, EMS Director, and the County Mayor before they can participate in the position of Medical Death Investigator. The minimum number of hours to be paid to a Medical Death Investigator should be four hours.”
“This new policy is to get us back in line with the state so we will be paying the medical examiner $100 per decedent and pay the medical death investigators at an hourly rate based on their ambulance service salary. That was the opinion of the comptroller’s office who said we could not pay an hourly employee a flat rate. They said if you are paid hourly at one (county) job you have to be compensated at the same wage for the other (county) job. It also states that the medical death investigators must be approved by the Medical Examiner, EMS Director and myself as County Mayor. Of course, they (medical death investigators) would be working under the medical examiner doctor’s license, and their salaries would be coming out of the EMS budget,” said County Mayor Adcock.
“I am hoping we can find a way to compensate these medical death investigator employees at a flat rate,” County Mayor Adcock continued. “I am working with the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office on how we can legally do that to keep employees from double dipping,” he said.
In other news, the commission approved the appointment of First District Commissioner Daniel Cripps to the budget committee. Cripps will replace First District Commissioner Tom Chandler due to a recent illness.
