Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has asked Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth to pause its plan to transition its emergency room staffing contract for 180 days, NPR-affiliate KLCC reported March 18.
Here are eight things to know about the transition controversy and what happens next:
1. The request, sent to Jim McGovern, PeaceHealth Oregon’s chief hospital executive March 18, comes after the hospital announced plans to end its decades-long contract with Eugene (Ore.) Emergency Physicians in favor of Atlanta-based staffing group ApolloMD.
2. In a March 10 article in The Lund Report, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, said that the deal likely violated Oregon’s new corporate healthcare transaction law—one of the strictest regulations on corporate ownership of healthcare organizations.
3. ApolloMD has said that its newly established entity, Lane Emergency Physicians, would be the organization staffing PeaceHealth’s EDs.
4. In her letter, Ms. Kotek said after PeaceHealth’s decision to close its University District emergency room in 2023, she was concerned about the system’s ability to transition safely.
5. “I am troubled by the likely consequence of PeaceHealth’s actions leading to the loss of quality physicians from the area,” she wrote. “This will have a long-term effect on a region already impacted by major health care disruption and provider decline. We have seen elsewhere in the state how planned staffing changes result in serious delay and disruption despite confident assurances from administrators.”
6. She has also asked the Oregon Medical Board to provide her with weekly updates to ensure the new entity has enough licensed physicians to safely transition staffing. She also asked the system to release scoring and other information that was used to decide to switch from local emergency physicians to ApolloMD.
7. Eugene Emergency Physician group members have also signed a pledge refusing to work for ApolloMD.
8. In a statement shared with KLCC, PeaceHealth’s spokesperson said: “We appreciate Gov. Kotek and other legislators’ engagement and focus on ensuring safe, reliable emergency care for Lane County communities, and we will respond promptly and directly to the questions raised in their letters,” the statement read. “We remain committed to transparency and to working collaboratively with the governor’s office, state regulators and community partners. We will continue to share information and provide updates as this transition progresses.”
Becker’s has reached out to PeaceHealth and will update this article if more information becomes available.
