Medical Examiner-Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Jeffery Gofton, M.D.
Chief Medical Examiner
Central Office, 901 N. Stonewall
Oklahoma City, OK 73117
Phone: 405/239-7141
FAX: 405/239-2430
www.ocme.state.ok.us
e-mail: [email protected]

• 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 62 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 34,306 deaths in Oklahoma. Approximately 11,925 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 2000, the office investigated 248 homicides, 530 suicides, 672 traffic fatalities, 751 other accidental deaths and 1,602 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