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PeaceHealth and Eugene Emergency Physicians finalized a three-year contract for the local physician group to continue staffing emergency departments in Lane County following the health system's decision to switch emergency providers this year.
PeaceHealth signed a final agreement with Eugene Emergency Physicians for the local doctors group to continue staffing PeaceHealth’s emergency departments at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield and at Cottage Grove Community Medical Center.
The three-year agreement, announced Wednesday, May 20, follows a preliminary deal the parties reached in early May, ending a three-month dispute in which Eugene Emergency Physicians, or EEP, fought to keep PeaceHealth from shifting to a Georgia-based corporation, ApolloMD.
The reversal followed physicians asking elected leaders for help, PeaceHealth putting an executive on leave, and a court challenge to the transition on grounds that it violated Oregon’s new law on corporate medicine.
As part of the case, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai presided over nearly 30 hours of testimony and arguments across four days. The four-page preliminary deal put a pause in arguments, and the plaintiffs — including EEP — filed Tuesday for Kasubhai to dismiss their case.
PeaceHealth CEO Sarah Ness visited RiverBend this week to meet with staff and 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.
“Those conversations were candid about where we fell short, honest in the role we played in the fracturing of relationships, and when the full picture was in view, how decisive steps were taken to put us on the right path. I am grateful for the openness you’ve brought forward,” Ness wrote Wednesday in an email, obtained by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
Her message was a reply-all to the contract announcement, made by interim Chief Hospital Executive Heather Wall.
“As part of this agreement, PeaceHealth and EEP are committed to a more structured and transparent working relationship focused on operational improvement,” Wall said.
That sentiment was echoed by EEP President Dr. Brad Anderson in a news release Wednesday. He said the practice and PeaceHealth have a “shared commitment to delivering measurable improvements in access, experience and the quality of care our patients depend on every day.”
A publicly available dashboard is planned to show wait times for patients in the lobby and for ambulance offloading.
“We believe this agreement marks an important step toward a stronger, more collaborative future for emergency care in our community,” Anderson said.
