ZephCMS MDI Management: Complete Medicolegal Workflow in One System

ZephCMS MDI Management is purpose-built for medical examiner and coroner offices that need to connect every part of an investigation—from the first call through final release—without stitching together a collection of disconnected tools, spreadsheets, and paper forms.

MDI Management starts at $24,000 per year. Pricing scales with case volume through five annual tiers. Implementation is scoped and priced separately.

Who MDI Management is for

MDI Management is built specifically for:

• Medical examiner offices managing investigations, autopsies, toxicology, histology, and certification
• Coroner offices handling intake, scene investigation, examination, cause and manner determination, and records
• Medicolegal offices that manage evidence, property, body release, and custody documentation
• Offices where the same case information has to be re-entered across intake, investigation, examination, and reporting systems
• Administrators who need accurate caseload reporting, statistical reporting to state and national agencies, and office performance visibility

MDI work is records-heavy, time-sensitive, legally significant, and exposes every weakness in generic software. The platform was originally designed for this context.

What is included in MDI Management

Intake and triage

Intake captures the initial notification, jurisdiction determination, decedent information, circumstances of death, reporting agency details, scene information, and the review needed to open the right case workflow. Jurisdiction checks and triage routing are built into the intake stage so cases go to the right place from the start.

Investigation and scene work

Investigation records connect narratives, scene details, photographs, agency contacts, scene timeline, tasks, and evidence to the case. Investigators can work from the field and add documentation without returning to the office to complete paperwork. All investigation activity is visible in the case timeline.

Examination and findings

The examination workflow supports autopsy, external examination, pathology, specimen tracking, toxicology orders and results, histology, cause of death, manner of death, and final findings. Information entered during intake and investigation carries through to examination without re-entry. Report templates can be configured around the office's documentation standards.

Evidence, property, and chain of custody

Evidence and personal property collected at scene or during examination are tracked with intake records, custody transfers, storage location, release authorization, and a complete chain-of-custody history. Every movement is logged. Releases require documented authorization before property leaves the system.

Certification and vital records

The certification workflow handles cause and manner completion, amendment, death certificate production, and coordination with vital records offices. Certification status is visible on the case so staff do not have to ask colleagues what stage a certificate is at.

Body release and next-of-kin coordination

Release workflow tracks next-of-kin identification, authorization, funeral home assignment, release condition, release documentation, and confirmation. Releases require completed authorization and examination clearance. The case stays open until release is confirmed and documented.

Records, correspondence, and case documents

Every case carries its own document workspace for reports, correspondence, authorizations, lab results, photographs, scene documentation, and administrative records. Versions are tracked. Documents are connected to the case rather than filed separately. Records requests and correspondence are handled through the same system.

Reporting and statistical output

Caseload reports, cause and manner summaries, toxicology trend reports, case status dashboards, and statistical exports are generated from the operational data already in the system. Reporting to CDC/NCHS and state agencies can be configured around the required data formats. Management sees accurate numbers without manually assembling data from several sources.

Office administration

Administrative functions—staff assignments, on-call scheduling, office configuration, access management, and audit logging—are managed through the same platform. Administrators do not need separate tools to run the office's internal operations.

How implementation works

MDI implementations are operational projects. We begin with detailed discovery: how intake happens today, what information is collected at each stage, how examination and reporting are documented, what evidence and property workflows look like, what data needs to be migrated, and what statistical reporting the office is required to produce.

Configuration covers case types, intake forms, workflow stages, examination templates, cause and manner decision trees, evidence categories, report templates, roles, permissions, and all office-specific terminology. Migration from legacy MDI systems, paper records, or spreadsheets is planned and validated before go-live.

MDI implementations typically run between $20,000 and $60,000 depending on office size, workflow complexity, legacy data migration, integrations with vital records or lab systems, and training scope. A written scope precedes all work.

What MDI Management does not include by default

MDI Management is focused on medicolegal operations. It does not include a FOIA or public records portal, general-purpose document archive for non-MDI records, or unrelated case-management workflows unless those modules are added. The platform is designed so MDI offices can start with MDI Management and expand into Archive or Portal when ready.

MDI work is too important to be run through generic software that was never designed for it.

Starting price and next steps

MDI Management starts at $24,000/year. Full annual pricing by volume tier is published on the pricing page. Implementation costs are scoped per project.

The best first step is a focused conversation about the current system—what it handles well, where it fails, and what the replacement must do differently. We can show MDI Management around the specific workflows your office runs.