A locally based group of doctors who staff PeaceHealth’s emergency departments has issued an open letter to the community. In the letter, Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP) expresses dismay over the hospital system’s decision to end its 35-year partnership. The group also states a willingness to continue their practice —as long as it remains local.
First, the letter extends gratitude to patients in the communities EEP has served for decades and it describes their work in emergency medicine as “taxing and rewarding, in equal measure.”
EEP’s letter does not mention ApolloMD, the Atlanta-based staffing company chosen to replace them. Instead, it welcomes finding a “path forward with PeaceHealth” that allows the physicians to continue practicing under a local banner.
In response, PeaceHealth issued a one-sentence statement:
"While contract discussions are between individual physicians and ApolloMD, we sincerely hope these physicians choose to remain in the community and continue to work with us."
However, it has already been reported that all 41 professionals with Eugene Emergency Physicians have signed an agreement refusing to work for ApolloMD for at least 90 days after their contract with PeaceHealth ends.
Here is the letter from Eugene Emergency Physicians in its entirety:
Lane County, Oregon-
Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP) extends its gratitude to the communities we have served for the past 35 years.
Since 1991, our physicians have had the privilege of caring for generations of families in times of need. The Emergency Department is a necessary, challenging and deeply human place to work. Our jobs are taxing and rewarding in equal measure. It has been our honor to provide emergency medical care 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the people of this region.
It was with great sadness that we learned that our contract would not be renewed. While this transition was not our choice, we want the community to know that we do not wish to leave the patients and colleagues we have served for more than three decades. While we acknowledge the difficulties that our departments have had, all 41 of us are committed to improving our hospitals, and we firmly believe in Oregonians serving Oregonians.
We would wholeheartedly welcome a path forward with PeaceHealth that allows us to continue practicing here under a local banner and staffing all of their Oregon Emergency Departments. We want to stay in the places we call home, in the roles we love, doing meaningful and vitally important work.
Thank you for the trust you have placed in us over the years. We will never forget what it meant to stand by you during life's most urgent and vulnerable moments.
--Eugene Emergency Physicians
