City Morgue Policy Change Is Impacting Grieving Families; Funeral Directors Say

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Making funeral arrangements for a loved one is tough enough, now some New Yorkers are being told they'll have to wait to pay their last respects.

As CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reported, Robert Ruggiero -- the head of the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association -- said the problem started two years ago, when mortuary operations changed.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner shut down the Bronx and Staten Island morgues citing the need to, "gain more control over operations, and generate more efficiency."

Now, remains from those boroughs get transported to either Queens, Brooklyn, or Manhattan.

Ruggiero claims it's created a logistical nightmare for funeral directors when retrieving remains -- adding hours to an already time intensive task, and procedural changes add to the burden.

"Doing prep procedures, waiting for medical exam to complete examination and constraint of release hours which they have to live with," he said.

The ME's office used to be accessible 24 hours a day, now it's open from 8:30 to 6:30.

"A family comes to us on a Thursday, says, 'we'd like a viewing tomorrow with a burial on Friday," he explained, "We frequently find we may not gain access to the remains until Saturday or Sunday."

He said until a funeral director has physical possession of the remains, no promises on timing can be made.

"When you have families losing a loved one, time requires sensitivity," he said.

Councilman James Vacca (D) said the city is being anything but.

"It if insensitive for them to go to other boroughs to identify a body and then to have an inordinate wait, which is sometimes hours and days," Vacca said.

OCME said it's received no complaints of significant delays.

"The quality of mortuary operations has improved. The vast majority of decedents are autopsied within 24 hours of arrival and ready for release the same day," a spokesman said in a statement.

It's of little consolation to families who've been told that laying a loved one to rest will have to wait.

CBS2 has been told that deceased members of Jewish or Muslim faith get preferential treatment to ensure they are buried within the short time frame required by their religions.