When a family entrusts your firm to cremate a family member, do you know how much of that person’s cremated human remains are returned or how much of others were co-mingled?

  Every crematory must strive to return the largest amount of cremated human remains possible. This also reduces the amount of co-mingling in the cremation process.

  Death care professionals must realize it is impossible to return 100 percent of the cremated human remains, and there is only one time that co-mingling will not take place. That one time is the first cremation performed in a cremator.

  Owners and operators of crematories must strive to obtain two goals: Return the largest amount and reduce co-mingling to the lowest amount.

  Certain steps will aid in obtaining these results:

?  Perform a complete cleanout with the cleanout tools.

?  Use a high-temperature vacuum in the chamber.

?  Empty the vacuum into the cleanout tray or onto the processing tray.

?  After emptying the vacuum, sweep it out with a brush.

?  Sweep out the filter with the brush to obtain additional cremated human remains.

  Of course, the downside of vacuuming after each cremation is that the floor of your unit may need replacing sooner. However, this additional expense should just be built into your charges for a cremation.

  Another consideration is whether the processing equipment is cleaned with a brush after each processing. This includes the inside of the processing unit, depending on the manufacturer’s equipment, as well as the top, tray and filter if the unit has one. Granted, these efforts may only retrieve a very small amount of cremated human remains. But it’s that much more that you are able to return to the family that has entrusted your firm, and it will also reduce co-mingling.

  Further, if you don’t own a crematory and use third-party cremation services do you know their procedures? If they do not at least match your standards for procedures, your firm has a moral and ethical decision to determine: Do you stay with your current service provider, or do you locate a different crematory that will return more cremated human remains and keep the co-mingling to lower levels?

  Even with the above procedures completed, some residue will always be found in a crematorium. The critical issue: What is the crematory doing with this residue? They could be placing the residue in regular trash or in bio-hazardous trash. The only acceptable method to handle this is to bury the residue in a cemetery. Most families would not want part of a loved one placed in the trash.

  The above areas deal with quality of service, ethics, and morals of how to operate your business. Do you want to stand out as top-tier, funeral service provider and have documentation that you can share with clients that makes your firm different than others?