Overview

Sharon Peters is an experienced health care regulatory practitioner, management-side employment lawyer, and strategic thinker who delivers practical, cost-effective solutions that align with clients’ objectives.

Hospitals, health systems, and other health care providers turn to Sharon for advice on medical staff and peer review, personnel issues, and state and federal regulatory compliance. She provides counsel regarding challenging patient and workforce issues, including difficult discharges, workplace violence prevention and response, consent for treatment and health care decision-making, state and federal administrative investigations of alleged discrimination or privacy breaches, policy drafting and revisions, and various other provider operations. Sharon is committed to guiding Catholic and faith-based health systems through a complex regulatory world consistent with her clients’ mission and ethical directives.

Additionally, hospitals and physician leadership seek Sharon’s advice concerning medical staff, credentialing, peer review, and quality improvement issues. She also drafts and revises medical staff governance documents and provides counsel to clients during medical staff proceedings, from early in the proceedings through fair hearings.

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Besides her health work, Sharon has a robust management-side employment practice. She advises and defends employers on a wide range of employment law issues, including disability accommodations, leaves of absence, discrimination and harassment, restrictive covenants, wage and hour, terminations, and federal and state law compliance. She also conducts workplace investigations and implements creative and effective employment policies and practices.

In both the health care and employment law settings, Sharon is a trusted advisor and problem solver, always investigating ways to resolve and avoid risk. When litigation cannot be avoided, she approaches the case aggressively, with attention to detail and the objective of preventing a trial by securing an early dismissal. Her early investigative and crisis management strategies help clients manage or avert altogether liability exposure and media scrutiny that can tarnish their reputation.

Sharon is a frequent speaker who enjoys working with clients to develop best practices for claims avoidance.

Sharon serves on Epstein Becker Green’s National Health Care and Life Sciences Steering Committee. Before joining Epstein Becker Green, she was a partner of a national law firm and a member of its Healthcare and Labor & Employment Practices.

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Focus Areas

Experience

  • Represented hospital medical staffs through peer review matters, including fair hearings, counsel through corrective actions, and policy revisions.
  • Worked closely with the leadership of various health care systems on such challenging issues as abuse reporting and investigations; informed consent issues for minors, adults, or incapacitated patients; and end-of-life decision-making.
  • Drafted various compliance opinions, including DEA regulations, Part 2, and civil commitment procedures.
  • Secured a defense jury verdict in a whistleblower retaliation case in Oregon federal court for a trucking company.
  • Obtained a jury verdict in a race discrimination and retaliation case in Oregon state court (Multnomah County) for a regional construction company.
  • Successfully defended a local hospital through trial in a lawsuit involving a physician’s breach of an employment agreement and accompanying claims, including recovery of significant defense attorney fees for the hospital.
  • Obtained summary judgment in two Oregon state employment retaliation cases based on the defense argument that timing alone is not always sufficient to support the plaintiff’s prima facie case.

Recognition

Credentials

Education

  • University of Louisville School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2001)
  • University of Dayton (B.S., cum laude, 1998)

Bar Admissions

  • Oregon
  • Washington State

Professional & Community Involvement

  • American Health Lawyers Association, Medical Staff, Credentialing, and Peer Review Practice Group
  • Association of Workplace Investigators
  • Maybelle Center, Board of Directors
  • Oregon Association of Medical Staff Services
  • Washington Association of Medical Staff Services
  • Washington State Society of Healthcare Attorneys

Media

Events

Upcoming Events

Past Events

  • Client Seminar: I’m Not on Call, and You Can’t Make Me – Legal Requirements, Practical Considerations, and Hospital Operational Issues Related to Physician Call Coverage
  • AHLA: Resignations & Reporting - Competing Challenges of Fairness and Compliance with NPDB / State Reporting Requirements
  • American Health Lawyers Association Physician and Hospital Institute: Ensuring Safety and Compliance During Difficult Patient Encounters
    February 6-7, 2018
  • Oregon State Bar Health Law Section CLE: To Report or Not to Report: Questions About the OMB, the NPDB, and the Health Professionals Services Program
  • Washington Association of Medical Staff Services: Resolving Disputes in the Credentialing and Privileging World
  • Oregon Society for Healthcare Risk Management: Advanced Behavioral Health for the Oregon Risk Manager
  • Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems: Holding Patterns: Behavioral Health in Oregon 2016
  • Oregon State Bar Health Law Section Annual Seminar: The Future of Telehealth Is Here: Key Legal and Compliance Issues
    October 2015
  • Client Inservice: Psychiatric Boarding and Other Hot Topics
    Fall 2015
  • Client Seminar: Using Agreements to Protect Your Business in Oregon & Washington
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Insights

Insights

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