Jim McGovern, MD, chief executive of the PeaceHealth Oregon Region, is on administrative leave pending a full review of concerns related to the scope of his administrative functions, the health system said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth said it received information from the RiverBend Medical Executive Committee outlining the concerns.
Dr. McGovern, who is not licensed to practice medicine in Oregon, was accused of “active management of patients” during a medical staff meeting earlier this month, William Emerson, MD, chief of staff at Springfield, Ore.-based PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, told medical staff in an email, according to The Register-Guard.
According to the newspaper, Dr. Emerson said there were “serious concerns” raised during the meeting regarding reports of patient management by Dr. McGovern, along with a pattern of criticism of physicians without full evaluation, dismissal of physician concerns and failure to respond to significant safety issues related to staffing and capacity.
The Medical Executive Committee also issued a formal reprimand and voted to report the matter to the Oregon Medical Board, according to The Register-Guard.
PeaceHealth said it has routed the concerns through appropriate review channels to ensure a thorough evaluation.
The situation comes as Eugene Emergency Physicians, an Oregon-based emergency medicine group with about 41 providers in Lane County, is suing to block PeaceHealth’s planned partnership with ApolloMD, an Atlanta-based physician staffing company.
PeaceHealth said in February it would not renew its 35-year contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians, opting instead to partner with ApolloMD to staff emergency departments at PeaceHealth Cottage Grove (Ore.) Community Medical Center, PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center and PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.
The lawsuit, filed March 20 in an Oregon state circuit court, alleges the partnership violates Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine laws, including restrictions on management services organizations.
Regarding Dr. McGovern, Eugene Emergency Physicians declined to comment on internal communications or 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,” the group said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
“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.”
Becker’s has reached out to ApolloMD for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.
PeaceHealth said it is moving forward with plans for the transition to Lane Emergency Physicians — a newly formed local physician entity that would hold the staffing contract as part of its partnership with ApolloMD — this summer “to ensure we continue providing uninterrupted, high-quality care to the residents of Lane County.”
It added that the decision to change emergency department physician management partners “was a multi-disciplinary team decision and was not made by one individual.”
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