Oregon DOC Investigation Puts Top Medical Officials on Leave
A mid an investigation into complaints about prisoner medical care, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) put two top healthcare officials on leave on December 5, 2024. Assistant Director of Health Services Joe Bugher and Chief of Medicine Dr. Warren Roberts were sent home, and DOC Assistant Director Heidi Washington was put in charge of the agency’s Health Services Division, according to a memo issued by Director Mike Reese.
As PLN reported, the DOC paid $1.5 million in September 2023 to settle a suit brought by former prisoner Jacqueline Orr over a traumatic brain injury she suffered at Coffee Creek State Prison, where she was then allegedly denied treatment. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.43.] Since then, Reese said, DOC has hired a “third-party qualified expert” to investigate healthcare management. No other details were made available about that investigation until the two high-ranking administrators were sidelined.
Roberts, who is a licensed neurosurgeon, did not perform surgery for DOC, according to spokesperson Amber Campbell. The state medical board placed him on a corrective plan to avoid formal discipline after an investigation into an undisclosed complaint in 2020—the same year that he was promoted from physician at Coffee Creek. He earns $381,000 yearly.
Bugher, who is not a physician, began his DOC career as a guard at Snake River Correctional Institution in 2004, before he moved into counseling and then behavioral management and assumed his current role in 2017. His annual salary is $241,000.
Source: Oregon Capital Chronicle
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