Jail Will Have Medical Supervisor : Full-Time Employee to Oversee Care of County Inmates

Health Care Agency officials said Monday they plan to place in the Orange County Jail next week a full-time administrator to oversee medical services for inmates.

The announcement came less than a week after the county grand jury issued a report that was sharply critical of the administration of medical and mental-health services at the jail. The report recommended that the services be placed under the jurisdiction of Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates.

Of particular concern to the grand jurors was the current medical-services director’s role as both administrator and physician in charge of the daily medical needs of hundreds of inmates--duties that constitute two full-time jobs, they said.

Dr. Harold Haughton, the jail’s first full-time medical director, resigned last week--two days before the grand jury issued its report--after only a year on the job. His resignation is effective June 15.

‘Job Set Up for Failure’

“I agree that the medical-services director being responsible for the daily administration and treatment of inmates is too much for one individual. It was a job set up for failure,” said Robert Love, interim director of the Health Care Agency.

Love said the new administrator, whose name has not yet been disclosed, will be able to evaluate the grand jury’s recommendations and those of a consultant hired by the Health Care Agency some time ago. The consultant’s report is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

“I don’t expect the consultant to tell me that everything’s fine, in great shape,” Love said. “If I’ve got morale problems and I’ve got problems keeping positions filled, I could only conjecture the consultant’s going to tell me I’ve got communications problems. Then, I need somebody who can fill in those gaps.”

Although no one has been officially named to the director’s job, county sources said a longtime employee of the Personnel Department is the most likely candidate.

Must Understand ‘the System’

“He’s definitely going to be an administrator. I don’t need more doctors,” Love said. “He’ll be somebody who understands the county system, and who understands personnel practices backwards and forwards.”

The grand jury also cited low employee morale and the difficulties of recruiting doctors and nurses to work at the jail. The jurors concluded that the lack of adequate administration of the program “has created an unworkable situation . . . (that is) unacceptable.”

The grand jury’s advice that the department be turned over to the sheriff has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, both because the sheriff runs the jail and because there is no independent coroner to conduct inquiries into deaths at the jail.

The new administrator, expected to start next week at an undetermined salary, will report directly to Richard DeGreve, head of a special office of the Health Care Agency that oversees correctional medicine, emergency medical services and several other health care programs.

Love said the decision to hire the administrator was due more to Haughton’s resignation and the need to replace him than to the grand jury recommendations.