Calling the Funeral Home When a Patient Dies (Video)

When a patient dies, their body is usually cleaned, placed in a bag, and taken down to the morgue.

Usually, the family calls the funeral home and makes arrangements to pick up their deceased loved one.

But there may be times when the family is too distraught to place that call, and either the charge nurse, the nurse, or you will place that call.

When you call the funeral home, they will ask you specific questions:

• Is the Release of Body form complete?
• The deceased name (and gender)
• The Next of Kin name (and their telephone number)
• Is the body ready for pickup (has postmortem care been completed)?
• Where can you pick up the body (morgue and in the room)?

More questions may be asked, but these are the ones you can count on.