This clunky database can help you vet Colorado funeral homes while the state barely regulates them

By Scott Franz at KUNC (Via AP Storyshare)

Dozens of Colorado residents file complaints against funeral homes and crematories each year. Several funeral homes are then investigated and disciplined over those complaints.

But unless they’re reported on by media outlets, many of the stories of alleged misconduct live in relative obscurity deep inside a clunky government database. The stories included in this database range from funeral homes and crematories operating without licenses to cases of allegedly storing bodies improperly.

KUNC scanned through the dozens of documents and discovered the state sent a cease and desist order to the Greenwood & Myers mortuary in Frederick after investigators learned it was operating without a license. How did investigators discover the mortuary was unlicensed? Well, the roof of the mortuary caught fire last April, and that caught the attention of officials.

The state permanently maintains all records showing the actions taken, or not taken, in response to complaints. Each cease and desist order and letter of admonition is posted in the database as quickly as an hour after it’s sent to the business.

But cases sometimes live in this database for months or years without much attention. In state where funeral homes aren’t regularly inspected and misconduct keeps making national headlines, the database can be a useful first step toward finding out if a funeral home has ever been disciplined for misconduct, and why.

How can I vet a funeral home or mortuary myself?

Step one is to make sure the facility has a valid and active license in Colorado.

To do that, click here and choose “funeral home or crematory” as the license type. Then start by typing in the names of businesses.

If you don’t have a particular business in mind, you can also search by city or zip code to find a list of licensed businesses in your area.

If the business has a valid license, it will say “active” in green.

If it doesn’t, it’ll show up as either “expired,” “revoked” or “suspended.”

This site will also list any records of disciplinary action against a funeral home or crematorium under “board program/actions.”

To learn more about what happened regarding disciplinary actions, click on the “search for document” link, where you’ll be taken to a separate database.

How can I read the reports of disciplinary action?

All of the reports are kept in this database, called the “Division of Professions and Occupations Public Documents” page.

If you’re looking for disciplinary records on a specific funeral home, enter it in the “business name” box and then select “funeral home and crematory” in the state board box.

This is where things get a little clunky.It may take as long as a minute for the documents to load. Katie O’Donnell, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies, tells KUNC there’s a lag right now because the state is working behind the scenes to move hundreds of documents over to a new software platform.

“We’re a month into a three-month process,” she said. “The idea is that once it’s all up on the new system, then those will load faster and we won’t have that lag.”

O’Donnell expects the database will be loading documents more quickly by December.

Once documents are loaded, Click on the blue link on the left side of the documents page under the “barcode” column to open the file.

O’Donnell said it’s worth waiting for the documents to load.

“This is basically a starting point,” O’Donnell said. “You can make sure (a funeral home or crematorium) is in our system, and then make sure they don’t have something going on that you would be concerned sending a loved there for services.”

O’Donnell said grieving families may not have the time or energy to do this kind of research. She said if that’s the case, asking a friend to do it could be helpful while deciding which business to choose.

So who is keeping tabs on these funeral homes?

Almost nobody. The state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies, or DORA, regulates them along with hundreds of other businesses, from river outfitters to landscape architects.

A report the state released this month shows it doesn’t even have a one full-time employee responsible for inspecting and regulating the 220 funeral homes and 77 crematories that are actively registered in the state.

The state does not do random spot checks or regular inspections of mortuaries, despite state lawmakers giving them that power last year.

The state says it doesn’t have enough money or staff to do regular inspections. So they wait for complaints.

“Because DORA is a complaint based agency, if we don’t hear what’s going on, or that there’s something strange going on (at a funeral home), we don’t know to send an investigator out,” O’Donnell said. “We don’t know to do an assessment.”

How do our Colorado funeral home regulations compare to other states?

Colorado has some of the most lax regulations in the country. Other states including Texas require periodic inspections. Some require annual inspections or even make it a prerequisite to getting a license.

Colorado is also the only state that doesn’t license and regulate the people working in these funeral homes and crematories. The state only regulates and requires a license for the business itself. Other states go as far as to require mortuary workers to receive some form of continuing education.The funeral home I’m thinking of using has a valid license in Colorado. How does that protect me?

Regulators say having an active license only signifies the funeral home is doing the bare minimum it is legally required to to do business in Colorado.

While not having a license could indicate a funeral home has been disciplined or had it revoked in the past, O’Donnell says having an active license doesn’t actually mean very much in terms of showing that the business is doing good work each day.

That’s because the license is not tied to any inspection or outside review of the business.

“That just means you actually paid your bill that year,” she said of the license. “Not that you did good business practice.”

I keep seeing disturbing stories about funeral homes in Colorado mistreating bodies. Is anyone doing anything to prevent it?

State lawmakers tell KUNC they’re working on a bill for the upcoming legislative session to add new regulations to the industry because of the ongoing cases of alleged misconduct.

State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, said he wants to require individual workers at mortuaries to get licenses and meet certain requirements.

“Business licensing is not enough. We need to be making sure employees are qualified to be working there,” he said. “Because when they’re going through their certification, they’ll learn about what you need to report to the state and what you need to be doing on a daily or monthly basis to keep your business compliant.”

State regulators are also recommending changes. They want more resources to do periodic or regular inspections of mortuaries. They say they also want to start following up with businesses that don’t renew their licenses to make sure they’ve stopped doing business.

I’d like to file a complaint against a funeral home. How do I do that?

Complaints can be filed online here.

O’Donnell said residents can expect a “pretty quick” turnaround time on a complaint.

“Obviously this a priority area, and we’re making sure that we are using that investigative authority that was granted to us last year to make sure that the the public is safe in this process,” she said.