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You don’t need a medical degree to understand the public animosity being leveled against PeaceHealth lately.
From baffling decisions, such as its ill-fated attempt to replace the local emergency department physicians group and allegations of administrative meddling in patient care, to more systemic issues like inadequate nurse staffing at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, PeaceHealth faces a massive deficit of community trust.
But unlike a scandal-plagued politician whose unpopularity can spur a backlash in the next election, there’s no voting out PeaceHealth. Nor should anyone in Lane County want that.
For all of its faults — and the past few months have surfaced many — Lane County needs PeaceHealth to be successful. While the emergency department staffing controversy was entirely of administrators’ own making, many of the problems facing the hospital system are emblematic of broader healthcare challenges.
At Oregon’s 25 largest hospitals combined (of which RiverBend is one), operating expenses exceeded revenues by more than $800 million between mid-2023 and last year, according to Oregon Health Authority data.
While the closure of PeaceHealth’s University District hospital has been devastating for emergency care in the region, PeaceHealth was transparent about the financial challenges that drove the decision: more than $200 million in operating losses in the four years leading up to the closure.
We fully acknowledge the economic and political challenges facing hospital systems today, which could be exacerbated in the years to come by looming Medicaid cuts and potential Medicare payment reforms.
But the public — and the hospital system’s Lane County employees — need to regain confidence in PeaceHealth. And PeaceHealth needs the public to have that confidence. There are a few ways we think PeaceHealth could step in that direction:
1. Pledging as much transparency as PeaceHealth can legally provide into the ongoing investigation of former Chief Hospital Executive Dr. Jim McGovern’s alleged interference with patient care decisions.
2. Committing to release a report on the executive-level decision-making that led to PeaceHealth’s unsuccessful attempt to replace Eugene Emergency Physicians with Georgia-based ApolloMD to staff its RiverBend and Cottage Grove emergency departments.
3. Pledging to address nurse staffing shortages by investing money into Lane Community College’s nursing programs, extending the types of commitments it has made in the past.
Now is the time for PeaceHealth to start regaining public trust. Its strained relationship with Lane County residents and many of its own employees matters, and transparency is one thing PeaceHealth can offer to improve those relationships at the moment.
These steps wouldn’t completely restore trust. But they would be a few steps toward helping a community — that has no choice but to rely on PeaceHealth — feel better during those difficult times when they need medical help.
We’ll all be watching to see what PeaceHealth does next.
