As the Oregon Department of Corrections faces a barrage of criticism for neglecting or postponing inmates’ essential medical care, the agency decided this week to remove its top two health care supervisors.
Longtime corrections officials Joe Bugher and Dr. Warren Roberts were put on paid leave Thursday. Roberts, who was employed in 2019, is the chief medical officer for the approximately 12,000 inmates housed in Oregon’s prison system.
Roberts’ supervisor, Bugher, started out as a correctional officer in eastern Oregon in 2004 and worked his way up to the position of associate director of health services, which oversees 634 staff members.
Although the reason for Corrections Director Mike Reese’s decision is unknown, he stated in a statement that the state engaged an outside expert to look into how our healthcare systems are run.
When contacted by phone on Friday, Roberts refused to respond. Bugher did not respond either.
In Oregon, there have historically been and are well-documented complaints regarding jail health treatment. Inmates have accused the state of neglecting to treat everything from severe brain injuries to asthma in numerous state and federal court files, and the courts have frequently taken their side.
Following an evaluation of its health services earlier this year, the accrediting body, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, put Oregon’s women’s jail on probation.
Coffee Creek Correctional Facility was specifically criticized by the group for causing undue delays in medical care and needing additional steps to approve common treatments in the fields of nephrology, cardiology, and endocrinology.
According to records, the institution was removed off probation after undergoing a follow-up review.
The head of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, Juan Chavez, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections for neglecting to adequately attend to the medical needs of inmates.
He accused employees of neglecting minor health issues until they became serious and claimed that the department’s approach to health care is plagued by denial and delay.
According to him, everyone in prison law believes that it has always been awful but has gotten noticeably worse in recent years.
Roberts’ position on panels that approve whether inmates can seek out expert care outside of prison was mentioned by him as particularly problematic. According to him, the procedure frequently denies inmates access to necessary medical care.
“Perhaps the right thing will happen once they become catastrophic,” he remarked. They might be forwarded to a different supplier.
In the next two years, the Department of Corrections plans to spend close to $500 million on health care.
The department has attempted to strictly regulate off-site medical visits in an effort to keep expenses down; this is a critical performance metric that is submitted to the Legislature annually, with the aim of keeping outside visits to 1% or fewer of total medical contacts.
According to public records provided by The Oregonian/OregonLive, outside visits accounted for little less than 1% to about 2% of all medical contacts between 2019 and 2023.
According to agency data, the cost of those outside services increased from $50 million in the previous biennium to $62 million over the most recent two-year budget cycle.
Inmates frequently complain that they are not given the medical care they need, including the opportunity to see outside physicians that prison officers have recommended.
Roberts, medical professionals, and prison officials make up the so-called Therapeutic Level of Care Committees, which act as the gatekeepers in that process.
If a prisoner requires surgery, access to a specialist, or medical imaging that the department is unable to offer, aside from life-threatening cases needing emergency care, the request is reviewed by a committee that functions as an insurance panel and makes a decision.
The procedure is mainly hidden from public view and is opaque.
Statistics about the frequency with which the panels grant or reject requested care are not compiled by the Department of Corrections. Additionally, it turned down a request earlier this year from The Oregonian/OregonLive for redacted copies of the panels’ one-page decision-documenting forms.
The newsroom’s appeal of the ruling was turned down by the Oregon Department of Justice.
According to Kate Edwards, a Hillsboro attorney who regularly defends inmates in health-related disputes, the panels’ assessment process can take months or even years.
“Those decisions are never explained to the public,” she stated. They just receive a one-page form back, usually with the statement that it is not now medically suggested.
“No,” they said.
Chad Cheever, 51, who is incarcerated at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Hermiston, claimed that since December 2022, he has been trapped in that medical limbo.
During physical therapy ordered by a prison physician for an earlier injury, he said that his biceps tendon separated from his shoulder.
After being brought to an outside emergency room, he encountered an orthopedist who suggested reattaching the tendon with shoulder surgery and an MRI. In an August interview, he said that an agency review panel had rejected his request for both, and that Roberts and Bugher had subsequently turned down his further appeals.
He said at the time, “It’s at a standstill.” “No,” they said. They have only agreed to offer physical treatment. I believe that having my arm’s full range of motion is reasonable, but there comes a time when it’s too late. It’s been much too long.
According to Jody Davis, his Portland-based lawyer, the procedure has been inefficient and more expensive than the surgery he first requested.
“We would like to resolve this as quickly as possible while providing him with the care he requires,” Davis stated.
Cheever was convicted of killing 60-year-old Don Whisenhunt in Linn County in 2018 and is currently serving a life sentence with the chance of release in 25 years.
Next year, his claim against the Department of Corrections will go to trial.
REFUSING ESSENTIAL CARE
Court decisions have often criticized the Department of Corrections for its failure to provide basic medical treatment.
According to a case that was filed in federal court over the summer, prisons officials have been wrongfully rejecting or postponing required medical care and slow-playing requests for medical care, which causes inmates to endure needless agony and suffering.
In a another recent instance, a judge in the Umatilla County Circuit Court ruled that the prisons medical staff did not properly evaluate and treat a man who had a brain injury after being abused by other prisoners.
A man was freed from jail in 2021 after a judge found that the Department of Corrections had neglected to provide him with physical therapy and had let his pain medicine to run out.
In 2021, a judge also found that the prison administration neglected to treat a prisoner’s dislocated wrist and that corrections staff had given him inadequate medical care for persistent pain, lung problems, and asthma.
In that instance, the judge’s conclusions called into question Roberts’ ability to practice medicine and labeled him a credulous and untrustworthy witness.
According to state records, Roberts signed a non-disciplinary corrective action agreement with the Oregon Medical Board in 2020.
After investigators looked into claims that Roberts had given five patients subpar care in 2011 and 2013, before he started working for the Department of Corrections, the deal was struck.
Roberts was accused of performing surgery on a 41-year-old woman when it was not medically necessary, performing a subpar surgical procedure on the spine of a 65-year-old man, performing surgery on a 60-year-old woman when it was not necessary, and failing to address post-operative complications in a 28-year-old patient, all of which contributed to patient harm, according to the records.
According to the board’s records, Roberts, who was once a Colorado practitioner, was the target of a malpractice case that was settled in that state.
Three years earlier, a Multnomah County jury gave a married couple over $4.5 million after the husband claimed he was permanently injured by Roberts’ spinal surgery, which changed their sexual life and made it difficult for him to pee. In the end, the lawsuit was settled, and the couple received $1 million in total. Roberts stated that he was found not responsible for the man’s injuries under the terms of the settlement agreement.
Roberts’ request to have two requirements of his 2020 corrective action agreement lifted—a one-year mentorship program with a pre-approved board-certified physician and the completion of 40 hours of continuing medical education—was granted by the Oregon Medical Board in January 2022.
According to the initial agreement, if he fulfilled the board’s requirements and turned in a letter of support from his mentor, those constraints would be lifted.
The remaining terms of the agreement are still in effect, such as the requirement that he cannot return to surgery until he has successfully finished a one-year mentoring program with a neurosurgeon who has been pre-approved by the board’s medical director.
A CYCLE OF NEEDED SUFFERING
Since 2020, Portland lawyer Tara Herivel said she s represented more than 100 prisoners who have alleged inadequate medical care and she s helped out on hundreds of other similar cases.
She said the Department of Corrections has ignored court-ordered medical care, which leads to additional hearings and what she called a cycle of unnecessary suffering.
She claimed that we would repeatedly win our lawsuits on the same reasons. Under Dr. Roberts, this loop has persisted for years.
The Department of Corrections plans to designate a fill-in for Roberts next week while he is on leave, a spokesperson said.
Bugher answers to Deputy Corrections Director Heidi Steward, who is filling his role while he is on leave.
Roberts salary is $380,724 and Bugher s is $241,176.
Ted Sickingeris a reporter on the investigations team. Reach him at 503-221-8505,[email protected]@tedsickinger
Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184;[email protected]
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