A mortuary is a place where staff prepare bodies for burial or cremation. They often have refrigerated storage and specialized ovens called retorts for cremation.
A lot of people confuse the term mortuary with funeral homes. They are similar, but mortuaries have a stronger focus on mortuary sciences and tend to be more bare-bones operations.
Locations
The morgue is a location where bodies of the dead are stored temporarily until they are identified, an autopsy is performed, or they are transported for burial. Morgues are usually located within or adjacent to hospitals but can also be found in funeral homes and retirement facilities.
In most cases, mortuaries are not designed for comfort. They are functional locations, with a heavy focus on mortuary science and not on aesthetics. The facility should have adequate cooling systems to ensure that the bodies remain preserved. It should also have large doors to make it easy to move around the rooms.
In addition to the body storage areas, the mortuary should have a reception area for visitors and staff who wish to pay their respects or complete administrative tasks. It should also have separate ablution areas for staff. It is important that the exhaust system is able to safely discharge the air from the mortuary without allowing it to re-enter the building and be contaminated with noxious odours.
Services
Mortuary facilities provide a place to hold bodies until they can be buried or cremated. They have licensed professional staff and provide a variety of services, including consultation with family members and clergy, arrangement of visitations and funerals, and preparation of legal documents. They also provide grief counseling and arrange memorial ceremonies.
Traditionally, mortuary services were more direct, offering only a quick viewing for immediate family members and onsite cremation. These facilities may be less comfortable and their smaller facility size can make it difficult to accommodate large groups of people.
Mortuary science programs prepare students for a variety of careers within the funeral industry, including morticians, embalmers, and funeral directors. They are accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education and offer a wide range of internship opportunities. They also provide scholarship and grant opportunities for students. Some schools also offer hybrid programs, which combine online coursework with on-site labs and clinicals. This option suits many students because it reduces commuting time and offers greater interaction with fellow classmates.
Costs
A funeral or memorial service can cost thousands of dollars. Some of the most common expenses include the cost of a casket or urn, funeral home service fees, a burial plot or mausoleum space, and a vault or grave liner. In addition, families may incur costs for a headstone or grave marker, flowers and other memorial arrangements, obituary notices, transportation for immediate family members, catering services for a post-service gathering, and other miscellaneous expenses.
While there are many differences between a mortuary and a funeral home, they both share the same goal of caring for the deceased. However, mortuaries are typically more direct in their approach, offering quick viewings only for immediate family members and onsite cremation without full-service offerings of memorialization. In addition, they offer lower prices. This streamlined approach may help families save money in the long run. However, some mortuaries do offer more extensive services as well. Myers Mortuary in Texas and Hart’s Mortuary in Georgia are just a few examples.
Insurance
Mortuary facilities may need a variety of business insurance policies, depending on the services they offer. For example, if a mortuary provides full funeral home and funeral director services as well as on-site cremation services, it may need to carry commercial property insurance that covers its building, furniture, office equipment, and crematories. It may also need general liability insurance that protects it if someone is injured while on its premises (e.g. a delivery person slips and falls), or if it loses or damages a customer’s personal belongings.
Burial or final expense life insurance, on the other hand, is a type of whole life insurance that pays a death benefit that can be used to pay for funeral expenses and other end-of-life costs. It typically does not require a medical exam and can be purchased by people with pre-existing conditions, making it an affordable option for many families.
Your independent agent can explain your options and help you select the policies that are right for your business. They can even provide a business owners policy that bundles mortuary liability and property insurance into a single policy that saves you time and money on your premiums.