Top PeaceHealth exec put on leave after patient care concerns

PeaceHealth has placed Jim McGovern, chief hospital executive at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, on leave following allegations he worked outside of his administrative scope and tried to influence the emergency care of patients.

It comes after the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee received more than 300 pages of emails allegedly showing McGovern trying to actively manage how patients were treated, according to documents and a recording of a Wednesday, April 8, meeting reviewed and authenticated by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

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.

“PeaceHealth recently received information from the RiverBend Medical Executive Committee highlighting concerns relating to the scope of Dr. Jim McGovern’s administrative functions. We take all concerns seriously and, following our standard processes, have routed them through appropriate review channels to ensure a careful and thorough evaluation,” PeaceHealth spokesperson Jim Murez sent in an email Thursday, April 9.

“Dr. McGovern, Chief Executive of the PeaceHealth Oregon Region, is now on administrative leave, pending a full review.”

His leave comes two months after PeaceHealth announced it would end its 35-year contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians, which provides 32 doctors and 9 physician assistants for its emergency departments. In February, PeaceHealth announced plans to contract with Atlanta-based ApolloMD instead of Eugene Emergency Physicians for emergency care at RiverBend in Springfield, as well as at emergency rooms in Cottage Grove and Florence.

In the weeks that followed, physicians spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, describing emergency department conditions they say are unsafe and attributing the problems to administrative decisions rather than frontline staff. 

They shared similar concerns at the Oregon State Capitol, urging lawmakers to conduct a state review. They rallied outside the hospital with support from community members. They hired attorneys who have filed legal complaints with a federal judge to temporarily block PeaceHealth’s plan.

Eugene Emergency Physicians, also known as EEP, kept details of McGovern’s alleged overstep confidential from the rest of the medical staff until now.

Hundreds of patients possibly affected 

PeaceHealth Chief of Staff Will Emerson, who holds an elected position on the Medical Executive Committee, a peer-nominated group of physicians and chairs of departments who meet with executive leadership over various issues on behalf of the broader staff, called a special meeting Wednesday to discuss “recently discovered concerns.”

Emerson sent medical staff two documents to follow along with during the meeting. One included copy-and-pasted text of emails compiled by EEP physicians that they say are correspondence between them and McGovern. The other document provided a timeline of meetings and discussions between EEP physicians and hospital leadership, written by Meg Pattison, emergency medicine department chair and a member of EEP.

Lookout received a copy of the documents Wednesday afternoon.

The paper trail started in 2023 when the emergency department at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District prepared for closure. EEP doctors warned the administrative decision would bring a high volume of patients that would only worsen existing issues with a poorly designed emergency department at RiverBend. 

In the first quarter of 2024, average wait times at RiverBend spiked, from five hours to seven hours the following year — a 40% increase — and remained elevated through early 2025, according to data from Oregon Health Authority.

At the Wednesday meeting, Emerson read through some of the emails from EEP, which expressed repeated concerns about staffing, bed shortages, lack of appropriately trained staff, and safety to patients and staff. 

Emails that multiple EEP physicians say are from McGovern include messages asking doctors to rush through decisions, challenging why patients were admitted to the emergency department, and in one instance, asking a doctor to stop an MRI. Specific examples included the following: 

• In response to a patient receiving care for colon inflammation, McGovern wrote: “had BM (bowel movement) but ‘doesn’t feel he can manage at home’ – I’ll be rude here but so? What’s the alternative? It’s not staying here and being placed. He had a BM, that’s what he’s here for he needs to go. Being too nice and overutilizing the hospital services results in 18 boarders this morning.”
• In response to a patient with kidney failure, McGovern wrote: “r/o (rule out) obstruction or decide comfort care – she’s dying. Are we going to be aggressive in saving her or make her comfortable? Someone needs to have that conversation with her and her family.”
• In response to a patient with gastrointestinal complaints, McGovern wrote: “If we’re doing imaging for patients because they are ‘concerned’ or don’t want to wait or insurance doesn’t want to cover and there aren’t clinical indications for studies we need to talk.”

According to Pattison’s timeline, she heard from other physicians last summer that they had also received emails from McGovern. She called the Oregon Medical Board, which regulates the practice of medicine in the state and investigates complaints that allege a violation of Oregon law by a board licensee. While she said she did not share McGovern’s name, she did ask about his involvement with care. She wrote that the board said it was a violation of an administrative license.

Pattison wrote that she brought these concerns to PeaceHealth president and CEO Sarah Ness and Chief Medical Officer Kim Ruscher in September last year.

Two months later, McGovern and Ruscher put out a request-for-proposal for a new staffing company in PeaceHealth’s emergency departments. In February, PeaceHealth announced the termination of EEP’s contract. Georgia-based ApolloMD is set to start July 1. 

“Multiple hundreds of patients are affected by this, maybe thousands,” Emerson said to medical staff during Wednesday night’s meeting, reflecting on an administrator working on patient care without an active license as a medical doctor.

He continued: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that having somebody who is not licensed to practice medicine and seems to be directing care from a position of power in a medical center to what amounts seemingly to just a personal opinion and desire to get patients out of bed and decrease utilization. It’s a major concert for quality.”

Medical board complaint against McGovern planned 

To the nearly 200 doctors in the meeting, Emerson said he and the Medical Executive Committee believe the emails and timeline provided by EEP raise concerns about retaliation against doctors who spoke up regarding patient safety. 

With an incoming out-of-state contractor, Emerson said the committee worried about further compromising clinical judgment with a staffing model that could allow for greater administrative control on the emergency department floor. 

“We also realize that it is exceedingly difficult to view this emergency department RFP as standardized or unbiased as we’ve been told given this documented pattern of behavior,” he said, using the acronym for “request for proposals.” “And then realize the person who ran the RFP and made the decision is the person driving these events.” 

“As (a Medical Executive Committee), we can’t normalize this. Patient care must remain with credentialed physicians and safety concerns must be supported,” he said. “We passed a resolution for a formal reprimand of McGovern based on this pattern of behavior.”

Various medical staff, who voted late February that they did not have confidence in McGovern or his contract decision, reiterated to Emerson that they lost trust in leadership. 

McGovern has been at PeaceHealth since 2019, when he arrived from Wisconsin-based ThedaCare. In February 2024, he was promoted from chief medical officer of PeaceHealth’s Oregon network to chief hospital executive of PeaceHealth’s operations in the state. 

Lookout Eugene-Springfield called McGovern on Thursday morning and evening and did not hear back.

According to an email about McGovern’s leave sent to staff Thursday from Richard DeCarlo, executive vice president and chief operating officer at PeaceHealth, he said Heather Wall — vice president of patient care operations and chief nursing officer — will serve as the interim chief executive for the Oregon region.

Emerson sent an email to medical staff Thursday afternoon before the announcement of McGovern’s leave. It stated that the RiverBend Medical Executive Committee plans to file a report with the Oregon Medical Board, which regulates the practice of medicine in the state and investigates complaints that allege a violation of Oregon law by a board licensee.

Emerson returned Lookout’s call late Thursday and confirmed his comments at the Wednesday meeting. Lookout reached out to Pattison through her colleagues and have not heard back.  

Dr. Annaleigh Boggess, part of EEP, sent a statement on behalf of the practice Thursday: 

“We can’t comment on internal communications or any individual patient situations. What we can say is that our physicians have been doing and continue to do what is safest and most appropriate for our patients based on our clinical judgment.

“We follow the standard of care, we advocate for our patients, and we will not participate in practices that are unsafe, inappropriate, or outside the law. Our commitment is to our patients and our community.”

It is not clear when the Medical Executive Committee will file the complaint with the medical board. 

Typically, when the Oregon Medical Board receives a complaint, it reviews the allegation to determine whether it may violate the state’s Medical Practice Act. Investigations can take weeks. In certain serious cases, practicing medicine without a license is a class C felony, which can carry up to five years in prison. 

Ben Botkin contributed to this report.

Correction: Due to incorrect information provided to Lookout, a previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of Annaleigh Boggess.