(A) Notification of Cook County Medical Examiner when resident dies. Upon the death of a resident if the death was due to unnatural causes, the Home Administrator shall notify the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner immediately. If the decedent was attended by a physician within the 30-day period immediately prior to death, and the death was not due to unnatural causes, and such physician agrees to sign the death certificate, the Home Administrator need not notify the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner.
(B) Removal of dead in Medical Examiner cases. In the event that a resident dies in a home regulated by this chapter, under circumstances that require notification to be given to the Cook County Medical Examiner as provided in division (A) of this section, no person shall disturb the scene where the death of resident takes place, nor shall any person in any way disturb the body from the position in which it is found until expressly authorized to do so by the Medical Examiner or his or her appointed representative, unless the movement of the deceased or of his or her personal property is required for the purpose of preventing damage to or destruction of the decedent’s body or his or her personal property, or is necessary to protect life, safety or health. Whenever the Medical Examiner has lawfully assumed jurisdiction of a body, such body shall not be removed or released from his or her jurisdiction without his or her express consent. If the Medical Examiner consents to the moving of the body, it may be moved from the place of death only to a mortuary within Cook County.
(C) Removal of dead in non-Medical Examiner cases.
(1) Compliance with county regulations. No body of a deceased person shall be removed otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the Cook County Department of Public Health concerning the removal of dead bodies.
(2) Permission of county required to keep bodies over 24 hours. No body of a deceased person shall be kept in any home regulated by this chapter longer than 24 hours after the hour of death without permission from the Cook County Department of Public Health.
(Ord. 2247, passed 9-3-2015)