BUCKS COUNTY, PA —Bucks County will be one of four in the country to have a rapid toxicology analyzer that will provide results in 31 minutes.
Bucks County Coroner Patti Campi explained the technology to the County Commissioners at their meeting on Wednesday. The commissioners approved Campi’s request to spend $79,800 for a Randox rapid toxicology analyzer device.
Campi told Patch that the technology will make Bucks County the fourth in the nation to have it. The others are Lehigh County, Charleston, S.C., and King County in Washington State near Seattle.
Campi said she sought a grant from the Opiod Settlement Fund for the technology which she believes will help cut down on overdose autopsies.
She said Bucks County reported 300 overdose deaths in the past two years and that overdose autopsies “take a big chunk of our budget.”
The Warminster Township-based coroner’s office plans to pay for the system using Bucks County’s $45 million allotment of the national opioid lawsuit settlement, Campi said.
Campi said the technology may take 4-6 weeks to arrive. The coroner said she’ll be working with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office on how to implement it.
She said the system will allow the office to get toxicology tests back fast and let families know about their loved one’s death without having to wait for weeks.
“This will give families peace of mind that their loved ones did or didn’t do drugs,” Campi said.
She also mentioned several other benefits:
- The technology will cut down on autopsies because results will be issued in real-time.
- Money saved from not doing so many autopsies will be used to hire more staff.
- If there are deadly drugs, the coroner’s office can work with the DA to target an area.
“This checks off a lot of boxes,” Campi said. “This is the first of its kind. I love technology.”