Oregon proposes nearly $500,000 in fines against PeaceHealth's RiverBend over nurse-staffing violations

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. —

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend has accrued nearly $500,000 in proposed civil penalties from the Oregon Health Authority over violations of the state’s hospital nurse-staffing law, as nurses at the facility press regulators and lawmakers for tougher enforcement and the hospital contests the fines.

OHA has fielded 438 staffing complaints against RiverBend and found violations of Oregon’s staffing law in 93% of them, according to state records reviewed by Lookout Eugene-Springfield, the local outlet that detailed the count this weekend. The agency consolidated the findings into 278 cited violations, including instances in which RiverBend failed to finalize staffing plans for multiple departments. Proposed civil penalties stood at $497,250 as of June 4.

PeaceHealth has paid $16,000 in penalties so far, hospital spokesperson Joe Waltasti told Lookout, while the system contests the bulk of the rest through scheduled hearings. “Like many hospitals around the state, PeaceHealth seeks additional guidance, clarity and interpretation on this new law,” Waltasti said, calling RiverBend’s nurse-to-patient ratios “among the best in the nation.”

The most-cited episode in the OHA record involves the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. On two consecutive night shifts in June 2025, OHA found that six nurse assignments involved more patients than the unit’s RN-to-patient acuity ratios allowed under the staffing plan. RiverBend’s NICU averages about 30 babies a day, often at the highest acuity level the unit handles.

Oregon’s hospital staffing law dates to the early 2000s and was strengthened in 2023 under legislation signed by Gov. Tina Kotek, establishing minimum hospital-wide ratios for RNs and certified nursing assistants. The committee-driven model lets each hospital’s joint staffing committee — direct-care nurses, managers, and union representatives — set unit-specific ratios above those minimums; once approved and submitted to the state, the plans are binding.

As of last year, more than 80% of RiverBend’s units had approved plans. Five had not: neurology, cardiac surgery, cardiology, orthopedic medicine, and one additional unit. Matt Calzia, Oregon Nurses Association co-chair of the RiverBend staffing committee, told Lookout that former Chief Hospital Executive Jim McGovern said in an October meeting that he would “rather pay the fines” than be “leveraged” by direct-care nurses. McGovern departed PeaceHealth in May amid separate scrutiny over emergency-department staffing and allegations he had worked outside the scope of his administrative license.

The Hospital Association of Oregon, in a statement to Lookout, called OHA’s enforcement approach “a problem of the OHA’’s own making” and an “overly burdensome complaint process” that threatens jobs and services. Rep. Rob Nosse, who chairs the Oregon House Health Care Committee and worked at the Oregon Nurses Association for nearly 20 years before being elected, told Lookout he is considering 2027 legislation to clarify what happens when a unit-level staffing committee deadlocks.

For RiverBend nurses, the fines are a partial proxy for the day-to-day picture. Alyssa Foshee, a Birthing Center RN who often picks up NICU coverage, told Lookout she and colleagues regularly run 16-hour days when census-driven holes need to be filled. “Sometimes hospitals prey on the compassion of the nurses,” she said.

Source: Lookout Eugene-Springfield, “RiverBend’s fines near $500,000 for breaking Oregon’s nurse staffing law,” by Ashli Blow, June 7, 2026; Oregon Health Authority enforcement records; Oregon Nurses Association.