INSPECTION AND ACCREDITATION

Documents pertaining to the I&A process, including the Autopsy Performance Standards are available here:

NAME International Accreditation Flyer
Blueprint for a NAME Inspection
NAME Accreditation Checklist 2024 - 2029
NAME Accreditation Checklist Autopsy Only 2024 - 2029
NAME Autopsy Performance Standards 2024
NAME Policy Manual

For an up to date listing of NAME accredited facilities, click here and check the box "NAME Accredited" then click on "search".

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Inspection and Accreditation COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the I & A Committee decided not to penalize an office solely because of temporary deficiencies related to case numbers and/or report turnaround times resulting from the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. Please be aware that, effective January 1, 2023, this forgiveness will no longer be in effect.

Barbara C. Wolf, MD
Chair, Inspection and Accreditation

Brian L. Peterson, MD
Co-Chair, Inspection and Accreditation

NAME CORE ACCREDITATION PROGRAM

The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) accreditation standards have been prepared and revised by NAME for the purpose of improving the quality of the medicolegal investigation of death in this country. Accreditation applies to offices and systems, not individual practitioners. The standards emphasize policies and procedures, not professional work product. The standards represent minimum standards for an adequate medicolegal system, not guidelines. NAME accreditation is an endorsement indicating that the office or system provides an adequate environment for a medical examiner in which to practice his or her profession and provides reasonable assurances that the office or system well serves its jurisdiction. It is the objective of NAME that the application of these standards will aid materially in developing and maintaining a high caliber of medicolegal investigation of death for the communities and jurisdictions in which they operate.

The NAME Accreditation Program is a peer review system. Its goal is to improve office or system performance through objective evaluation and constructive criticism. The inspector is the medical examiner's peer and serves as a guest consultant to the office or system.

The accreditation program is intended to evolve over time. Procedures ensure the review of standards and procedures and a mechanism is established for setting standards. 

The fee structure for inspection and accreditation is based on the population served by the office. Effective January 1, 2023, offices serving less than 2 million in population will pay $5,000 the first year and $2500/year for the next three (3) years.  Offices over 2 million in population will pay $8500 the first year and $3500/year for the next three (3) years.  Individual offices within a larger system will be inspected and treated as individual offices. The Inspection and Accreditation fee structure may be increased for offices outside the continental United States to allow business class airfare if the scheduled flight time, including stopovers and change of planes, is in excess of 14 hours.  In such circumstances, business class air travel is permitted, in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations. Fees are subject to change and are set by the NAME Executive Committee.

The NAME core accreditation program is managed by ORA (Occupational Research and Assessment) https://ina.orainc.com.  For information pertaining to inspection, re-inspection or annual accreditation verification under NAME’s accreditation program, please contact Denise McNally at [email protected].  For those wishing to achieve office accreditation for the first time, please refer either to the NAME Accreditation Checklist 2024 - 2029 or the NAME Accreditation Checklist Autopsy Only 2024 - 2029, as appropriate to your office. The Autopsy Only Checklist is appropriate for medical examiner/coroner offices that do not have in-house medicolegal death investigators but rely on outside agencies for investigative information. Additionally, a third checklist is being developed to accommodate the occasional offices that perform investigations only and rely on other NAME accredited offices to perform their autopsies.  Your office's completed checklist is the document that your inspector will use in reviewing your office, and it is by use of this document that you can prepare for that inspection. The next step is to let NAME know of your intentions ([email protected]). At that point, you will be assigned a user name and password to allow you to access the ORA (Occupational Research and Assessment) web site (https://ina.orainc.com). Your office data will become accessible on this site, and also, and you will be sent a document offering instructions as to how to fill out the checklist. Through that site, you will input the extensive data required before the actual inspection occurs – policies and procedures, photographs, and other necessary documentation. This is a large project, but, once the initial upload is complete, annual updates become a much easier task. Good luck!

On-site versus Virtual Inspections

Following the lead of the College of American Pathologists, the Inspection and Accreditation Committee is offering virtual inspections as an alternative to the traditional in person inspections, with the following stipulations/exceptions:

• All first time inspections, including the first time inspection of a new facility or the substantially renovated facility of an office previously accredited, will include an in person, on-site visit. 

• Once every eight years (every other inspection), the inspection of an office will be performed in person.  

• Facilities can request an in person inspection rather than a virtual inspection if they so choose. Inspectors can also request to perform an in person inspection if they feel that an on-site visit is warranted.

ISO/IEC 17020 ACCREDITATION

In 2016 NAME entered into an alliance with ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB). ANAB offers an ISO/IEC 17020 program for medical examiner/coroner offices that seek ISO (International Organization for Standardization) accreditation. In January of 2019 the first joint ISO assessment and core NAME inspection was performed. American Forensics in Mesquite, Texas, successfully achieved accreditation both under ISO standard 17020 and Full Accreditation under NAME’s core program. Although it was subsequently decided that the alliance between NAME and ANAB would be dissolved, ANAB will continue to support and work with any medical examiner/coroner's office that wishes to pursue 17020 accreditation after the termination of the alliance with NAME.

Exemplar policies for offices preparing for an ISO/IEC 17020 assessment are available below. The policies are numbered using the ISO/IEC 17020 International Standard. All of these policies were written by committee members using their individual office practices and experiences, and may not exactly apply to other office practices.

ISO 8.5- 8.8
             AF Chapter 22 Internal Audit
             8.6-8.7 Campobosso
             ISO 8.5- 8.8

For an up to date listing of NAME and ISO 17020 accredited facilities, click here and check the box "NAME Accredited" and/or "ISO 17020 Accredited" then click on "search".