Fred Jordan, M. D.
Chief Medical Examiner
Central Office, 901 N. Stonewall
Oklahoma City, OK 73117
Phone: 239-7141
FAX: 239-2430
www.state.ok.us/ocme

• The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has the sole responsibility for investigating sudden, violent, unexpected and suspicious human deaths within the State of Oklahoma. Information gained from these investigations is used in the criminal and civil courts and to ascertain concerns of public health.
• The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner functions with 60 full-time equivalent positions, has an office in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa and utilizes several hundred physicians in the counties as local Medical Examiners for cases occurring in their jurisdiction.
• In an average year there are approximately 33,000 deaths in Oklahoma. Approximately 11,000 of these are reported to The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for examination. Primary jurisdiction is taken in approximately half of these cases. In 1999, the office investigated 300 homicides, 529 suicides, 750 traffic fatalities, 712 other accidental deaths and 1,651 natural deaths.
  
• Among the benefits to the public from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner are:
  • Appropriate settling of insurance claims on work-related deaths
  • Identification of potentially unsafe consumer products
  • Identification of poisons
  • Identification of infectious agents
  • Appropriate charges in deaths related to both criminal & civil legal actions
  • Identification of unknown decedents