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Dr. Jim McGovern, the organization's chief hospital executive for Oregon, is leaving his role after internal emails surfaced that physicians say show administrative interference in patient care decisions.
Dr. Jim McGovern, who served as chief hospital executive for PeaceHealth’s Oregon network for nearly seven years, is no longer employed by the health care system.
PeaceHealth President and CEO Sarah Ness announced that McGovern is leaving his role effectively immediately, Thursday, May 14, according to an internal email obtained and authenticated by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
“We determined that a leadership change was in the best interest of the organization,” Ness said.
Heather Wall, vice president of patient care operations and chief nursing officer, has served as interim chief executive for PeaceHealth’s Oregon region since McGovern went on leave and will continue in that role, according to Thursday’s announcement. She will work alongside Mark Korth, the system’s chief transformation and integration officer.
PeaceHealth is recruiting a new chief hospital executive, Ness said.
PeaceHealth placed McGovern on leave on April 9 after learning of 300 pages of emails that appear to show him overstepping his administrative role.
Members of Eugene Emergency Physicians, the doctors group that staffs the emergency department at RiverBend, say the messages show McGovern directing or intervening in patient care decisions.
An administrative license, which is what McGovern holds in Oregon, does not permit him to make decisions that those with an active medical doctor license in the emergency department make.
Amid their recent contract dispute with PeaceHealth, Eugene Emergency Physicians brought the concerns in March to the Medical Executive Committee — a peer-nominated group of physicians and department chairs who meet with executive leadership on behalf of the broader medical staff.
The committee believed the paper trail showed PeaceHealth executives were “dismissive” of the allegations last fall, when they then initiated a procurement process to search for other companies to staff PeaceHealth emergency departments.
The process led to the selection of a new company, Georgia-based ApolloMD, to manage and staff PeaceHealth’s emergency departments in Lane County with a planned start date this summer.
PeaceHealth reversed course and offered Eugene Emergency Physicians its contract back May 6 following heated arguments in federal court, where a judge was weighing whether ApolloMD’s corporate structure was in violation of a new Oregon law.
McGovern’s alleged conduct was not central to the case, but surfaced through witness testimony.
Meanwhile, additional emails emerged questioning care decisions made by doctors in PeaceHealth’s emergency and hospital medicine departments. The Medical Executive Committee compiled the emails into a complaint filed with the Oregon Medical Board on May 1.
Typically, when the Oregon Medical Board receives a complaint, it reviews the allegations to determine whether they may violate the state’s Medical Practice Act. Investigations can take weeks. In some cases, practicing medicine without a license is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Lookout Eugene-Springfield called McGovern on Thursday and did not hear back.
