Leaders from the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University joined others from across the region today (Friday, April 20) to unveil the new state-of-the-art forensic center that serves eight Northeast Tennessee counties.
The 42,000-square-foot forensic facility, which was completed earlier this year, is located in Building 6 on the Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus and includes the medical school’s sections of forensic pathology and toxicology.
These services were previously located in other buildings on the College of Medicine and ETSU campuses and this is the first time all of the forensic units are located in one central facility.
“When our morgue was first established back in the 1980s, the plans were to perform approximately 30 autopsies per year,” said Dr. John Schweitzer, chair of Pathology at the Quillen College. “That number rose dramatically and quickly, and, in recent times, we have handled more than 300 cases in a given year, which created an intense need for a larger place.
“Because our forensic facility is such an integral component of the work done by the region’s legal and law enforcement personnel and the state health authorities, we were able to receive support from the local counties, the federal government, the state legislature, and the governor’s staff, including the commissioner of Finance and the commissioner of Health, which made funding for the renovations possible.”
The price tag for the Upper East Tennessee Forensic Center was $6.5 million.

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