Last week, PeaceHealth revealed it will not renew its decades-long contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians to staff its ERs in three Lane County hospitals. Instead, PeaceHealth has chosen an Atlanta-based management company called ApolloMD to run its emergency departments. KLCC spoke with two local emergency physicians, with reactions to the hospital system’s decision.
Dr. Scott Williams has been a partner with Eugene Emergency Physicians for 22 years come June 2026.
He was asked to be spokesperson for the local, physician-owned group and he does so cautiously, as he is still under a non-disclosure agreement with the hospital system.
The end of a partnership: 1990-2026
Williams said Eugene Emergency Physicians had a 35-year relationship with PeaceHealth — one that was mostly positive and productive. In fact, he said it was PeaceHealth that approached the physicians group in 1990 asking them to incorporate so they could begin contracting.
“We have received contract renewals every three years until this past November,” he said. “That's when we were notified that PeaceHealth was going to have a request for proposal for an alternative group to staff at some of the departments.”
Williams said that up to that point, PeaceHealth leadership had not identified any issues or problems with quality of patient care provided by EEP.
“But to provide some additional detail, it is not a secret that the emergency departments, particularly at RiverBend have been struggling,” Williams said. “There are excessive wait times that none of us like and we would like to see improved. And historically we've partnered with PeaceHealth to try to come up with solutions there.”
Williams said EEP has a lot of expertise in ED operations.
“Our medical director has a dual degree and a master’s in business administration. Several of our emergency physicians have attended emergency department operation courses through the American Academy of Emergency Medicine as well as the American College of Emergency Physicians,” he said. “We've traditionally worked with PeaceHealth process engineers to come up with ideas and improve flow through the emergency department.”
Witness to a breakdown
Dr. Charlotte Ransom worked 18 years with Eugene Emergency Physicians. Until its closure in 2023, she served as medical director and Chief of Staff at University District Hospital in Eugene and recalls the point when EEP’s partnership with PeaceHealth started to break down.
“When they were discussing the closure of University District, we brought up the concerns of the burden that would put onto RiverBend without significant changes to the structure of that emergency department,” she recalled.
“We said, if you need to consolidate, it’s understandable, but please take these steps to make it a safe transition so that patients don't have these increasing wait times and can be cared for in a safe manner. And that was felt not to be something they wanted to do.”
Fast forward two and a half years. Every doctor interviewed by KLCC has said wait times have increased significantly at RiverBend. Patients needing to be admitted to the hospital can sometimes be “boarded” in the ER for days, waiting for a bed.
“And now the Riverbend emergency department has hallway beds lining all the halls,” Ransom said.
Ransom said the problem with the PeaceHealth emergency department isn’t the doctors — it’s the conditions. Sitting on the Leadership Council and serving as chair of the hospital-wide peer review committee for years, Ransom said EEP was never brought up for clinical, professional or medical staff concerns.
She believes the hospital’s reason for changing the emergency medicine contract right now is because of years of pressure from EEP to fix problems that were creating such bad patient care.
"It appears to me that the hospital is utilizing Eugene Emergency Physicians as a scapegoat,” Ransom said, “for the problems that we are currently seeing in the RiverBend emergency department that are directly the result of the closure of University District and the failures of the hospital to preemptively prevent those problems.”
Feeling the loss
When the contract decision was announced by email Feb. 4, Williams said he and his fellow emergency docs had a flood of feelings.
“I think the overwhelming emotions are disappointment and sadness,” he said.
Like many other docs with EEP, Williams has deep ties here.
“I was born at Sacred Heart Medical Center and this community raised me,” he said. “I graduated from Sheldon High School and then went to Linfield College and then Oregon Health & Sciences University. And when I finished medical school, I decided that I wanted to go into emergency medicine.”
After completing an elite emergency medicine training program in Indiana, he said he could have practiced anywhere in the country.
“I decided to come home to this community. I’m passionate about this community and it has been the greatest privilege of my career over the last 22 years to help people in the emergency department, that were my coaches, my teachers, my neighbors, my friend,” he said with a sniffle.
Williams said his story is a lot like other EEP doctors.
“My partners have graduated from North Eugene High School, from South Eugene High School, from Springfield, from Churchill, from Creswell, from McKenzie from Marist, from Oak Hill…”
A PeaceHealth spokesperson declined to make hospital executives available for a KLCC interview.
In the email to medical staff, PeaceHealth top executives, Dr. Jim McGovern and Dr. Kim Ruscher, describe ApolloMD as a physician-owned organization with a focus on “patient satisfaction, strong support for clinicians and deep engagement with local communities.”
The PeaceHealth email stated that following a “comprehensive assessment led by Oregon-based clinical and administrative leaders, we have selected ApolloMD as our emergency medicine partner at our three Oregon emergency departments.” Those departments in Springfield, Florence and Cottage Grove.
ApolloMD has no experience operating in Oregon.
The email continues with a line of appreciation for the “years of service provided by Eugene Emergency Physicians.”
Local docs say no to ApolloMD
Ruscher has said, upon entering into the emergency medicine contracts this summer, ApolloMD will invite any remaining emergency physicians to reapply for their jobs.
Williams said as of Tuesday evening, all 41 doctors and Physician Assistants of EEP have signed an agreement refusing to work for ApolloMD. The agreement is for 90 days following the contract end date of June 30.
Williams feels confident that he and his fellow Eugene Emergency Physicians can sleep well at night. “And [we can] can look in the mirror in the morning and say that we have done our best job and offered every resource to try to improve care in the emergency department.”
As for regrets, Williams said there is one: “My future looks like I will move to a different community that has a healthcare system that aligns with my values and that means leaving my hometown and leaving the town where my parents still live,” he said.
Williams will continue to treat patients in the emergency department at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart RiverBend until Eugene Emergency Physicians' contract ends June 30.
Since leaving PPE and PeaceHealth last August, Charlotte Ransom has worked in emergency medicine as a locum, independent contractor for independent hospitals around the state.
