After more than three decades with the same local emergency group, PeaceHealth Oregon is cutting ties and bringing in an out-of-state operator to run three Lane County ERs. The health system recently told local emergency clinicians it will not renew its long-running contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians, instead shifting emergency room coverage at RiverBend, Cottage Grove, and Peace Harbor hospitals to Atlanta-based ApolloMD when current agreements expire this spring and summer.
The decision affects roughly four dozen emergency physicians and physician assistants who have staffed those ERs for decades and comes as RiverBend continues to struggle with crowding and long waits. In response, local clinicians have started organizing against the handoff, signing agreements that would bar them from working for ApolloMD during a 90-day window after the existing contracts end. Hospital leaders say the move is aimed at improving patient flow and satisfaction, not punishing individual doctors.
PeaceHealth's explanation
In a message to staff, PeaceHealth said ApolloMD was chosen after what it described as a comprehensive assessment led by Oregon-based clinical and administrative leaders, according to OPB. The email portrayed ApolloMD as a physician-owned firm that focuses on patient satisfaction and support for clinicians.
The note specifically thanked Eugene Emergency Physicians for years of service and named Dr. Jim McGovern and Dr. Kim Ruscher. PeaceHealth framed the shift as a procurement call that it believes will help the system perform better on wait time and throughput metrics that have dogged the busy RiverBend emergency department.
Doctors push back
Members of Eugene Emergency Physicians, which has covered PeaceHealth emergency rooms for roughly 35 years, say the announcement caught them off guard. They have signed an internal agreement promising not to work for ApolloMD for 90 days after the current contract ends, KLCC reports.
Dr. Scott Williams told KLCC he plans to keep treating patients at RiverBend until the June 30 contract expiration, but said many colleagues are now weighing whether to leave the community entirely if the decision stands. Physicians say the switch risks eroding local accountability and the continuity of care that has been built over decades with a homegrown group that lives and works in the area.
On the ground: capacity and wait times
Frontline staff and local reporting point to a different culprit for RiverBend's bottlenecks. Volumes and inpatient boarding at the hospital climbed after PeaceHealth closed the University District emergency department in 2023, and clinicians argue those broader operational strains, rather than emergency physician performance, sit at the heart of the problem, according to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
Nurses and hospitalists who pushed PeaceHealth to renew the Eugene Emergency Physicians contract warned in a November letter that swapping out the local group without fixing inpatient flow would jeopardize recent gains in throughput. Their concern, boiled down, is that leadership is changing vendors instead of expanding capacity, and that this choice sits at the core of the competing narratives between hospital executives and frontline staff.
Timeline and uncertainty
The handoff is scheduled to roll out as existing contracts expire. Local outlets report that the Cottage Grove agreement is expected to end in late May and that RiverBend's contract runs through June 30, with current clinicians staying on through the transition period, according to Prism News.
PeaceHealth has highlighted ApolloMD's programs that it says can help improve patient flow. At the same time, local coverage notes that ApolloMD is based in Atlanta and has little to no operating experience in Oregon, a fact that has raised questions about onboarding and continuity of care, OPB reports. Leaders from ApolloMD and PeaceHealth say they have started meeting with staff to map out how the transition will actually work.
What this means for patients
In that November letter, about 60 PeaceHealth clinicians warned that simply switching contractors, without adding capacity or easing backups throughout the system, would not fix delays in the emergency department, KLCC reported. Community and union leaders say they plan to keep a close eye on wait times and on how many patients leave without being seen as the new group comes in.
Physicians involved in the dispute say their main focus is preserving safe staffing levels and local expertise for complex cases. For now, Eugene Emergency Physicians will continue staffing the ERs under the current deal until summer. How this contract battle plays out is likely to affect hiring, retention and the day to day experience of patients walking into PeaceHealth emergency rooms in the months ahead.
