Thousands Sign Petition To Save Local ER Doctors (Photo) - 04/23/26
Nearly 7,000 people sign nurses’ petition in support of Eugene Emergency Physicians
(SPRINGFIELD, Ore.) – Local nurses delivered a petition signed by more than 6,800 supporters to PeaceHealth’s executives and board of directors April 22. The petition calls out PeaceHealth’s attempt to outsource and corporatize emergency room care at local hospitals and demands PeaceHealth renew its contract with local doctors at Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP).
“Our community’s health can’t be sold to the highest bidder. Our healthcare belongs to our community, and it should stay in our community,” said Chris Rompala, RN, ONA board member and bargaining unit chair at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend. “We don’t want temporary providers just passing through to collect a paycheck. We need to keep care local with experienced EEP doctors who know our community and are committed to serving the people of Lane County and making our hospitals places we can be proud of.”
Since announcing its plan to outsource emergency room doctors to the large, out-of-state medical group ApolloMD on Feb. 4, PeaceHealth executives have faced intense scrutiny and widespread criticism from healthcare providers, firefighters, elected officials and community members—with many sharing concerns that PeaceHealth's proposed change could threaten community health and safety.
One of the primary decisionmakers for the change was PeaceHealth Oregon CEO Dr. Jim McGovern. McGovern was placed on leave by PeaceHealth April 9 after more than 300 pages of emails surfaced which “show Dr. McGovern repeatedly trying to influence and dictate patient care against providers clinical judgment and violating the scope of his administrative license” according to the medical executive committee at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend. The committee is a senior leadership group of hospital physicians and medical staff.
McGovern appeared to make the outsourcing decision after he learned staff had submitted a complaint about his actions.
Following these revelations, PeaceHealth RiverBend chief of staff and medical executive committee member Dr. Will Emerson called the ApolloMD request-for-proposal (RFP) process and decision “irreparably compromised” and said it “raises the strong possibility that the RFP decision may have been retaliatory in nature.” The medical executive committee is among those calling on PeaceHealth to reverse its decision and continue its relationship with Eugene Emergency Physicians.
The proposal is also facing legal challenges as elected officials and healthcare providers question whether the move complies with Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine law which prevents corporations from overly influencing or interfering in patients’ care.
PeaceHealth’s attempt to outsource emergency care is part of a larger pattern of profit-focused decisions by PeaceHealth executives. These include closing Eugene’s only hospital—leaving nearly 200,000 residents in Oregon’s third-largest city without a hospital or emergency room—and shuttering local healthcare options including a sleep clinic and pediatric cardiology service in Springfield; medical and optometry clinics in Eugene; and home infusion services.
PeaceHealth executives have also repeatedly led mass layoffs of caregivers and support staff including hospice nurses and flaunted Oregon’s safe nurse staffing law. These repeated actions have led to multiple no confidence votes from local physicians and nurses and sparked widespread community action.
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