Nurses deliver 6,800-signature petition opposing RiverBend ER staffing change

Nurses and community members delivered more than 6,800 signatures to PeaceHealth leaders on Wednesday, pressing the hospital system to abandon a July 1 plan to replace Eugene Emergency Physicians with Atlanta-based ApolloMD at RiverBend Hospital in Springfield.

The petition fight has turned RiverBend, the 388-bed PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend and one of Lane County’s main Level II trauma centers, into a test of who controls emergency care in the region. Eugene Emergency Physicians has staffed RiverBend and other PeaceHealth emergency departments in Lane County for decades, and local reporting says nearly 50 emergency physicians and physician assistants could be affected by the contract change.

Supporters of the petition launched the effort in February, soon after PeaceHealth said it would not renew its 35-year contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians. Since then, resistance has widened beyond the bedside. Oregon Congresswoman Val Hoyle sent a letter to PeaceHealth’s chief executive urging the company to reconsider, warning about patient safety at a critical trauma center. Eugene Emergency Physicians also filed a lawsuit against PeaceHealth and ApolloMD, arguing the arrangement violates Oregon corporate medical laws.

PeaceHealth says the switch is part of a broader change in emergency department physician management across its three Lane County medical centers, with transitions at Cottage Grove and Peace Harbor scheduled for June 1 and RiverBend set for July 1. The health system says RiverBend’s emergency department volume climbed from roughly 55,000 visits in fiscal year 2024 to more than 80,000 projected in fiscal year 2025, and says the new model is meant to improve access, throughput, quality and long-term sustainability.

That rationale goes straight to the practical questions facing Springfield and Eugene patients: who answers the next emergency call, how fast patients move through a crowded ER, and whether long-serving local clinicians remain in the room when high-stakes decisions are made. With more than 6,800 names already on the petition and the legal fight underway, PeaceHealth is under pressure to spell out exactly what will change for patients if ApolloMD takes over RiverBend this summer.