The concept of partnering in facility design was originally developed for the purpose of sharing risk. In the forensic industry today, the term partnering commonly refers to the synergy and economy that results when two or more groups merge resources to achieve a common goal. For a public institution wanting to add or replace facilities, partnering is a sensible strategy with shortand long-term financial rewards.

When the San Diego County Medical Examiner (SDME) and County Veterinarian needed new facilities, County Administrators undertook a needs assessment to understand what benefits might be obtained by co-locating both agencies under one roof. The initial benefits were expected to be shared construction and maintenance costs. In addition, the pairing of these agencies simplifies service delivery, reduces operating costs, and enhances the teaching and research partnerships for both the SDME and the Veterinarian in four key areas; laboratory, academic, building site, and overall facility.

A NEW FACILITY
This article explores the working partnerships and facts that drove the design of the new San Diego County Forensics Center. The new facility is approximately 84,000 square feet, including a limited basement, first and second floors, and a mechanical penthouse. Of the 84,000 square feet, veterinary necropsy and laboratories consume approximately 14,500 square feet with medical examiner autopsy and laboratories employing approximately 22,750 square feet. Necropsy and autopsy areas are located on the first floor with supporting laboratory spaces utilizing the second floor. Necropsy spaces include a BSL-3 necropsy suite with adjoining cold room and digester, a large animal necropsy suite with a ceiling hoist conveyance system, a small animal necropsy area containing two free-standing necropsy stations, and a necropsy bench area. The autopsy facility has five separate autopsy areas: a space for anthropology, dental, and embalming with two stations, a single-station suite (with separate cold room) for decomposition, a single-station homicide area, a teaching and research autopsy room with two stations, and the main autopsy suite containing 11 separate stations with planned future expansion of two additional stations. Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin at the end of 2007 with occupancy planned for August of 2009. From needs assessment to completion, the lapsed time will exceed four years. This time frame is typical for public projects, with some taking longer if bonding or other public approvals are required. For the San Diego County project, there is a single source of funds. Smaller communities wanting to undertake a new facility may look to nearby universities or hospitals for partnerships, keeping in mind that some partners have time-sensitive grant funds that require project phasing.

LABORATORY PARTNERING
Both the SDME and the Veterinarian are now located within a large county campus of multiple buildings. The Veterinarian also has an allied partnership with the Division of Agriculture, Weights, and Measures. All three entities require laboratory facilities. The initial building program anticipated open sharedlaboratory space but protocols impacted the outcome.

Toxicology & Histology
During the initial programming phase, concepts of laboratory partnering were envisioned to not only share laboratory space but also share lab processes and even case work. In the final design for the facility the County Medical Examiner and County Veterinarian do not share any laboratory spaces. The best case scenario was for the County Medical Examiner and County Veterinarian to share toxicology and histology laboratory space, however, the need for security clearances for Veterinary staff to work in the Medical Examiner labs prevented an open laboratory design with the agencies working side by side. The open lab concept would cause an increase to the County’s operating budget to raise the level of security clearance for each of the Veterinarian’s staff. To minimize the initial construction cost and ongoing operating cost impact of two separate toxicology laboratories, the two agencies developed new protocols that allow the laboratory to be built and staffed by the Medical Examiner but can include both SDME and Veterinary sample processing. Another factor to consider is the volume of samples each lab processes. Veterinary toxicology had a small enough volume of samples to allow the Medical Examiner lab to process the samples for them, allowing a single lab to be built. Despite the efforts to share one lab in histology,two separate labs were needed due to the high volume of samples.