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The motion is part of a lawsuit, filed last month, that seeks to stop PeaceHealth’s plans to contract with Atlanta-based Apollo MD for its emergency departments. The case was recently moved from Lane County court to federal court.
This story was updated with details of health care providers’ statements and comments from PeaceHealth.
Eugene Emergency Physicians is asking a federal judge to block PeaceHealth’s plan to replace it with Atlanta-based ApolloMD as the staffing provider for emergency departments in Springfield, Cottage Grove and Florence.
The local physicians group first filed a complaint in Lane County Circuit Court on March 20, alongside two other plaintiffs: parent Karen Stapleton, whose child may use local emergency rooms in the near future, and a Lane County doctor, Dan McGee, concerned about disruptions to his own practice and patients.
At the request of PeaceHealth’s attorneys, the complaint was refiled in the Eugene Division of the U.S. District Court of Oregon on April 6, and the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction Wednesday, April 8.
They are asking for the court to:
- Preserve the status quo with Eugene Emergency Physicians until Peacehealth “will be able to legally provide adequate emergency medical services to the community and will not put the community at risk.”
- Prohibit ApolloMD from violating Oregon Senate Bill 951, a law passed last year that sets strict limits on corporate control of medical practices.
- Dissolve Lane Emergency Physicians, an emerging practice at PeaceHealth which ApolloMD is supporting.
Senate Bill 951 closes a loophole that allows private equity firms and corporations to appear compliant by naming physicians — sometimes with little or no authority — as practice owners even as those corporations maintain control behind the scenes.
The plaintiffs argue that the defendants’ actions follow the very model that Senate Bill 951 was designed to prevent. They note that Lane Emergency Physicians shares the same principal place of business as ApolloMD, and that the sole owner of the new group, Dr. Johne Philip Chapman, has worked for ApolloMD locations in other parts of the country.
They are asking that the court order an expedited hearing between April 20 and April 30, because “plaintiffs and the community will suffer irreparable harm if this dispute is taken up in the normal course.”
As part of the complaint, eight people with a range of health care backgrounds submitted declarations addressing the abrupt shift. PeaceHealth plans for ApolloMD to begin providing emergency department services July 1.
“Regardless of whether the underlying arrangements are legal or not, the rapid transition of emergency care to an entirely new group of Emergency Medicine providers will result in extraordinary inefficiencies and reduced quality of care,” said radiologist Corey Orton, who is also a member of medical staff and Medical Executive Committee of PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield.
Registered nurse Rose Fantozzi added in her declaration, “furthermore, this transition is scheduled to take place during the summer months, a historically busy time for the hospital’s emergency department. During this busy season we see and treat extraordinary numbers of trauma patients. Healthcare providers rely on our established working relationships in order to care for and facilitate care of trauma patients from our local community and the surrounding areas.”
Since learning of the termination of its 35-year contract in February, Eugene Emergency Physicians have relentlessly advocated for their jobs. The group’s 41 medical professionals — 32 physicians and nine physician assistants — say working for a corporate medical group raises ethical concerns about patient care and uncertainty about their livelihoods.
In the weeks that followed, physicians spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, describing emergency department conditions they say have become unsafe and attributing the problems to administrative decisions rather than frontline staff. They also shared similar concerns at the Oregon State Capitol, urging lawmakers to conduct a state review, and rallied outside the hospital with support from community members.
PeaceHealth leadership has remained steadfast in their decision. The hospital sent the following comment in an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
“PeaceHealth believes that the litigation from Eugene Emergency Physicians is without merit, including the preliminary injunction. We are proceeding with our plans for the transition to Lane Emergency Physicians this summer to ensure we continue providing uninterrupted, high-quality care to the residents of Lane County.”
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