# Are morgues located in hospitals?



## jcthatsme (Mar 19, 2014)

This seems like a weird question but I feel like in a forum of writers I'll be understood... 

If someone was found murdered and then taken to a morgue for the family to identify the body, are these morgues located in hospitals or in separate 'dedicated' locations that are just morgues?

I can't say I've ever seen a 'morgue' building anywhere but I've never been looking out for one either and I guess they wouldn't necessarily promote themselves.


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## momilp (Jan 11, 2010)

In Italy, they would be located in hospitals. Not sure in the US.


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## RipleyKing (Mar 5, 2013)

Hospitals have them, but so do your typical Department of Criminal Investigations (big city). What you want to do is call the non-emergency number of your DCI or equivalent, tell them who you are and what you are doing, and see if you can't ask them some questions. Chances are good they are willing to answer any and all questions you might have. You might even get invited to tour the place, just let them know if you're squeamish. Active investigations will be off limits, that's a given, but a good general overview with a quick tour might make your day. If you do get a tour, see if they would like a credit in the back matter.


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## Someone (Dec 30, 2011)

Yes, there are morgues in US hospitals. People do die in the hospital...


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## Kylo Ren (Mar 29, 2014)

While hospitals do have morgues, the kind of morgues you're thinking of are most likely in a separate facility, probably just referred to as a city morgue. But it totally depends on the city. If you're writing about a specific city, you should call and ask.


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## AndreSanThomas (Jan 31, 2012)

In the US it would be a separate facility.  There could be a holding area at the hospital for deaths that occur there until they're transferred to a funeral home or county morgue, but they wouldn't be brought to a hospital for autopsy/processing/notification of kin, etc. if they were clearly dead.


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## Someone (Dec 30, 2011)

It really does depend on what process occurred when the person was found. Were they transported to a hospital? ( this depends on if they were obviously dead on the scene and able to be called deceased by EMS ) If so, they were most likely formally ID'ed when the body was still in the ER. In other cases - the obvious dead on scene - the body would go to a county morgue which is usually located within a hospital basement in whatever city. From there, the body is ID'ed if not already ( and is rare that it is not yet identified thus causing a family member to ID a body at the morgue, a lot of effort is put into identifying the body before it is transferred to the morgue ) and autopsied by a ME who may have an off-site office but does all of their autopsies in the basement located county morgue in a hospital in the county they work for. Sometimes bodies are transferred to a state crime lab, but usually it is just samples removed by the ME during autopsy with state crime lad investigators coming to the body if necessary. After autopsy, the funeral home picks up the body from the morgue.
-- from a paramedic who worked big city for over a decade and, when the main unit was already dealing with a body, sometimes had the unpleasant job of body removal from either a crime or non-crime scene for transport to the morgue

See the addresses of MEs in the bigger cities. You will find most have a hospital address


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## 555aaa (Jan 28, 2014)

It's also an old newspaper term for an archive of newspaper articles. 

Also, and I'm sure you know this, a coroner and a medical examiner do very different jobs.


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## cahocking (Nov 8, 2010)

As an Australian writer AND an ex-nurse, I can tell you that every hospital here will have a morgue. It is usually in the basement level (turn left for the carpark, right for the morgue) and these days should have some security involved in entering it. In my day (late 60's), nurses used to go down to the morgue for a smoke. Nobody complained about it there. We attended autopsies as part of our training. Didn't realise how useful that would be to me as a writer. They aren't scary places at all, very quiet and very clean, no smell - but mortuary attendants come in all shapes and sizes, some of them quite strange. After all, it's not the normal sort of career choice most people would make. I knew one that had an impressive collection of "bits" in jars and when he retired, they all went home with him. Would make for interesting conversation over coffee and cake!


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## CASD57 (May 3, 2014)

I worked for a funeral home as Maintenance, but I did pickups for extra $$$, yes in the US they have them in the hospitals and guess what?    they are in the basement


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## Douglas Milewski (Jul 4, 2014)

A morgue is any place that stores dead people. So the city/county/state could have such a facility, and so would places where people could reasonably die and need to be stored, such as a hospital or a prison.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

If I remember correctly, hospitals do have areas designated as "morgues," but it's not the place where they perform autopsies and such. It's really just a holding area for the deceased until they turn the body over to the appropriate authority.


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## mojomikey (Apr 9, 2014)

Your Aussie friend probably gave you the best answer if that's where your story is located. I was a medic in NYC, the city morgue was in Bellevue Hospital, but all hospitals have a holding area, designated as a morgue. In Ohio, I was a fire lt for 29 years - morgue was in hospital, but autopsies and id was done in a separate facility. Transport really depended - sometimes ambulance, sometimes a van from funeral home. They never used a hearse for this in my experience. Any more questions, feel free to ask or pm me.


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