A nonprofit health system’s decision to replace some of its Oregon physicians with a national chain presents an early test of a new state law designed to restrict such deals.
Hospital operator PeaceHealth picked Atlanta-based ApolloMD to staff three of its Oregon emergency rooms, giving the boot to a Eugene-based physician group whose doctors have staffed its hospitals for 35 years. The doctors are speaking out, triggering a wave of protest that’s included letters from lawmakers, mayors, and emergency medicine groups. There’s been a community petition and hundreds of doctors and nurses have signaled their disapproval.
“They expected us to just accept the corporate takeover of our job and it’s caused a problem for them that we have said, ‘No, we are not going to do this,’” said Sarah Coleman, a physician with Eugene Emergency Physicians. PeaceHealth invited Coleman and her colleagues to reapply for their jobs with ApolloMD, but all 41 of them have so far declined.
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— Source: STAT News (https://www.statnews.com/2026/03/09/peacehealth-er-doctors-replaced-apollomd-backlash/)
