The Oregon Department of Corrections placed its chief of medicine and the assistant director for health services on paid administrative leave on Thursday, pending a human resources investigation.
The department declined to give any details about the investigation into Dr. Warren Roberts, its chief of medicine, and Joe Bugher, the agency鈥檚 assistant director of health services, who were put on leave. The move, by The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com, comes amid high-profile concerns about the health care of inmates, especially at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the state鈥檚 women鈥檚 prison.
The corrections agency is responsible for the medical care of about 12,000 inmates in 12 state prisons across Oregon. Its health services division has 634 employees statewide and often contracts with outside physicians for specialty care.
鈥淗ealth care for adults in custody is a top priority at the Oregon Department of Corrections,鈥� Oregon Department of Corrections Director Mike Reese said in a statement. 鈥淎s corrections processionals, we have a moral obligation and legal responsibility to provide quality care to those in our custody.鈥�
Reese said the agency has hired an unnamed 鈥渢hird-party qualified expert鈥� to investigate the management of the agency鈥檚 health care system. The agency declined to elaborate, but the agency has been dogged with problems in the past.
At Coffee Creek women鈥檚 prison, an outside accrediting agency found of nearly 600 medical appointments. Last year, a woman at the prison settled a lawsuit for $1.5 million after alleging inadequate treatment for a traumatic brain injury after emergency room doctors recommended a neurologist.
Bugher, who is not a doctor, earns an annual salary of $241,000. He started in 2004 as a correctional officer at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. In 2008, he became a counselor and in 2013 moved into a management role in the prison鈥檚 behavioral health unit. He was promoted to assistant director in 2017.
During the investigation, Deputy Director Heidi Steward will run the agency鈥檚 Health Services Division, Reese said in a memo to staff.
Roberts, who earns a salary of nearly $381,000 annually, joined the agency as a corrections physician at Coffee Creek in 2019, and in September 2020 he became a clinical director before his December 2020 promotion as the agency鈥檚 chief of medicine.
Oregon Medical Board public records show that Roberts, a trained neurosurgeon licensed since 2001, was placed on a corrective plan to avoid formal disciplinary action in 2020 to settle an outstanding investigation on an unspecified issue. In that agreement, Roberts agreed to a one-year mentorship with a physician and, if he resumed a surgical practice, to enter into a separate surgical mentorship program.
At the corrections department, Roberts did not perform surgeries, said Amber Campbell, spokeswoman for the agency.
In 2017, The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com reported that a Multnomah County jury awarded a married couple a $4.5 million verdict when they sued Roberts for allegedly botching the husband鈥檚 spinal cord surgery and .