PeaceHealth Oregon to use out-of-state company for emergency department staffing in Lane County

PeaceHealth Oregon has decided to use the Atlanta-based company ApolloMD to staff its emergency departments in Lane County, ending a decadeslong contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians. The decision led the group to hold a no-confidence vote in PeaceHealth leadership, which the hospitals’ medical staff supported overwhelmingly. In a statement, PeaceHealth said it selected ApolloMD based on “Lane County’s future emergency medicine needs and the type of resource required to meet increasingly high patient volumes and medical complexity.” Margaret Pattison is the emergency department medical director at PeaceHealth RiverBend in Springfield and a member of Eugene Emergency Physicians. She joins us to talk about the decision and how the group is responding.