Notification

Guidelines for Notification of the Coroner

(Wisconsin Statue 979.01; HFS 135; & Wisconsin Act 336)

In identifying the deaths that should be reported to the Coroner’s Office, it is realized that several counties do have variable guidelines. However, the State of Wisconsin does have specific guidelines on the following reportable deaths:

  • All deaths in which there are unexplained, unusual or suspicious circumstances.
  • All homicides or deaths following a homicide attempt
  • All suicides or deaths following a suicide attempt
  • All deaths following an abortion
  • All deaths due to poisoning, whether it is homicidal, suicidal, or accidental.
  • All deaths following accidents and/or injuries whether the injury is or is not the primary cause of death, and regardless of the time span when death occurred.
  • When there is no physician in attendance within 30 days preceding the death including patients receiving care in a nursing home or from a health care of hospice agency.
  • All deaths that occurred after a motor vehicle accident, snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle, boat, bicycle, skate boarding, regardless of the time span.
  • When a physician refuses to sign a death certificate, or you are unable to reach a physician in a timely manner to sign a death certificate.
  • All deaths that have occurred in a correctional institution.
  • All deaths that have occurred after being in any type of restraint.

Further guideline reportable deaths to our office include:

  • All deaths of a fetus greater then 21 weeks of gestation.
  • All deaths that occur within 24 hours of admission to the hospital.
  • All deaths that have occurred after an invasive procedure.
  • All hospice deaths that are under a certified hospice program.
  • All deaths that occur in a community based residential facility.
  • All deaths that occur in a nursing home where an injury may have occurred regardless of time span.
  • All deaths where the body is to be donated to a school of medicine or other facility for research, training or other purposes.
  • Organ donation or autopsies may not be completed on the remains of the decedent if the death is reportable to the coroner.

Questions may always arise surrounding the death of the decedent, and if you have any concerns pertaining to the reporting of a death, we ask that you please contact our office which is available to answer your questions 24 hours a day.

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