PeaceHealth Oregon chief medical officer resigns amid staffing turmoil

Kim Ruscher resigned as PeaceHealth Oregon’s chief medical officer effective May 25, a leadership shakeup that lands after RiverBend staff in Springfield and nurses across the hospital system delivered overwhelming no-confidence votes amid a fight over emergency care in Eugene, Springfield, Cottage Grove and Florence.

Ruscher told PeaceHealth medical staff she would take personal leave and did not intend to return to a leadership role at RiverBend Medical Center. She joined PeaceHealth in 2013 as a pediatric surgeon and was elevated to Oregon-region leadership in 2024 by Jim McGovern, who has since been placed on administrative leave and removed from his role. PeaceHealth has not named a replacement.

The resignation comes after PeaceHealth announced on Feb. 4 that it would end its 35-year partnership with Eugene Emergency Physicians and shift emergency-department staffing to ApolloMD at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, PeaceHealth Cottage Grove Community Medical Center and other local sites. Eugene Emergency Physicians had staffed PeaceHealth emergency departments since 1990, and all 41 of its providers signed an agreement refusing to work for ApolloMD after June 30, raising immediate questions about who would cover emergency shifts in Lane County.

The backlash inside the system was hard to miss. On Feb. 24, 93% of 367 ballots cast in a medical-staff vote were no confidence votes against McGovern and Ruscher. On March 2, 98% of participating RiverBend nurses also rejected PeaceHealth leadership, a signal that the dispute had moved far beyond an administrative disagreement and into a broader crisis of trust on the RiverBend campus.

Frontline concerns centered on crowding, wait times and authority inside the emergency department. Doctors said RiverBend had seen patients treated in hallways and even closets during peak demand, while the closure of PeaceHealth’s University District hospital in Eugene pushed more volume to Springfield. The staffing conflict also drew a court challenge over Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine law, SB 951, underscoring how far the dispute had spread beyond one hospital contract.

PeaceHealth reversed course on May 6 and later finalized a three-year agreement with Eugene Emergency Physicians on May 20 for RiverBend and Cottage Grove, while continuing direct physician employment in Florence. The system said the deal will include regular data review, a public dashboard tracking lobby wait time and EMS wall time, and a community coalition on emergency-care partnerships. With McGovern gone and Ruscher now out, the key question for Lane County patients is whether those changes bring real stability to Eugene-Springfield emergency access or simply mark another turn in a leadership crisis that has already shaken staff morale.