Deb Wilkey says she wants to serve another term as Kootenai County Coroner because she's good at it.

Wilkey was elected coroner in 2010 after serving for six years as deputy coroner under Dr. Robert West.

"I want to provide accuracy, competence and professional objective," Wilkey said.

She said she brings a unique blend of law enforcement and medical experience to the job.

Before moving to Kootenai County, Wilkey received her Peace Officer Standards and Training certification from Idaho State University. She spent eight years in law enforcement working as a sheriff's deputy for the Bannock County Sheriff's Office and for the Pocatello Police Department.

Wilkey later became a registered nurse and spent 21 years working mainly in critical care in the emergency room at Kootenai Health. She also spent four years working as the Sexual Assault Services nurse manager at the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center.

"I'm good at guiding families through a difficult time," Wilkey said. "I learned that in the law enforcement field and significantly in the ER."

One of the greatest challenges the coroner's office faces, Wilkey said, is working within a small budget to provide accurate death determinations, as opposed to making "hard choices in a very unpredictable environment."

"I feel that hard choices are a thing of the past," Wilkey said.

Wilkey said her office experienced an anomaly in her second year as coroner, and that led to greater expenses. They had numerous cases of negative autopsies in which there were no findings to support the cause of death.

The anomaly was related to toxicology. About 14 of those cases were related to "stacking," or combined drug toxicity, Wilkey said. The cost to determine that was expensive, she said.

The key to controlling costs, she said, is to hire a board-certified forensic pathologist and provide services in Kootenai County rather than in Spokane.

Because Kootenai Health is now a Level III Trauma Center, more critical cases are coming to Kootenai County from the surrounding counties like Benewah and Shoshone, Wilkey said. If those people die, the Kootenai County Coroner's office is responsible for determining the cause of death, she said, and those bodies are being sent to Spokane, incurring costs for Kootenai County.

Providing local forensic pathology services would end that practice, and allow for regionalization within Idaho. It would save costs while providing accuracy, she said.

"My whole platform is to provide the most accurate information surrounding death in a professional, cost-effective manner," Wilkey said.

Profile:

Deb Wilkey

Age: 60

Profession: Coroner, medicolegal death investigator

Educational background: Master's degree in forensic anthropology, University of Montana; Bachelor of Science, Lewis-Clark State College; Associate Degree Nursing Program, North Idaho College; Peace Officer Standards and Training certification, Idaho State University; American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators certification; hundreds of continuing education and training classes, seminars, and symposiums in all related areas.

How many years as a resident of your city? Coeur d'Alene, since 1984

Marital status: single

Family: A grown daughter, grown son and daughter-in-law, grandson, and Cobe, her Lab.

Hobbies: Family time; fly-fishing, "Bones!!!"

Political affiliation: Republican