As a Springfield City Councilor, I have been elected to represent and advocate for the best interests of Springfield residents. When I think of my constituents, it is my neighbors in Ward 3 and every single person who calls Springfield home. With the recent announcement by PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend to end a 30-plus-year contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians and contract for emergency room staffing with Georgia-based staffing company ApolloMD, the quality of patient health care and the livelihood of a homegrown local business have been put in peril.
This decision by PeaceHealth leadership is causing me great concern for patients, physicians, nurses, Emergency Medical Service providers and other community partners — and I’ve been in conversation with people on all sides of this over the past couple weeks. I am urging PeaceHealth leadership to come back to the table with the trusted and committed providers at Eugene Emergency Physicians to put patient and community needs before profit.
I understand how the current landscape for health care is challenged — particularly in our communities where we have seen the closure of the University District hospital, long emergency room wait times, impacted staffing capacity and lost revenue. PeaceHealth, however, is a nonprofit hospital, and my decades of serving in nonprofit leadership roles taught me that we put the needs and best interests of the people we serve over the bottom line. In fact, as an elected person in Springfield, I know the people’s interests ARE my bottom line…