Barry County will likely contract with Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine to provide medical examiners services with a six year contract from Jan.1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2023, including the appointment of recognized expert Joyce deJong, D.O. as Medical Examiner.
Sparrow Forensic Pathology has provided the services to Barry County since the death of the local doctor who was the ME in 2007, County Administrator Michael Brown said Tuesday.
This summer, Sparrow notified the county they were terminating the contract because they were losing money, and offered to re-negotiate a new agreement at a higher rate, he said.
Requests for proposals were sent to WMU, Sparrow and Genesee, Oakland and Kent County medical examiners. Just WMU and Sparrow responded with proposals. Sparrow offered a one-year fixed price of $137.873, with the fee “increasing in accordance with it’s costs at a rate not to exceed four percent a year.”
“While it is impossible at this time to calculate the total cost of the agreement for Sparrow due to the inflationary increases not being defined, applying four percent a year would make Sparrow’s final contract price $914,508. WMU’s proposal total cost in their proposal in $921,700,” Brown said. He noted the WMU bid was higher, but the amount was not significant over the life of the agreement.
The schedule for WMU is: in 2018, $145,957; in 2019, $148,876; in 2020, $151,989; in 2021, $155,169; in 2022, $158,272; and in 2023, $161,437 to be billed monthly.
The new contract would be for six years since there were two years left on Sparrow’s contract when they terminated it.
In a letter sent with it’s proposal, deJong said the focus of the Department of Pathology at WMU School of Medicine is to create forensic pathology and anthropology centers to serve the nine most southwest counties in Michigan, including Barry County.
A $68 million renovation of the former Pfizer Building in the heart of Kalamazoo County included development of state-of-the-art pathology laboratories that opened in 2014.
“The addition of talented and experienced faculty to the department with extensive training and experience in forensic pathology, anthropology, odontology and entomology, along with a dedicated and experienced staff, allow us to provide exceptional medical examiner services to area counties,” she said.
The WMU pathology department in the Kalamazoo facility is in the District 5 Emergency Services District, as is Barry County. Brown said current Medical Examiner Investigators would be retained.
By state law, Barry County must provide medical examiner services and appoint an ME and Deputy ME to carry out the duties called for by the law.
