Oregon’s flagship research hospital and medical school on Tuesday sued Oregon Public Broadcasting to prevent the release of records about its firing of a prominent executive four months into his job.

That executive, OHSU Health CEO Tarek Salaway, was fired on April 3. OHSU said little to explain his firing at the time. Salaway said publicly that he was pushed out after raising concerns about patient safety.

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office this month ordered OHSU to turn over an investigation it conducted of Salaway, but the healthcare giant is suing to fight that order.

“It is difficult to conceive of a stronger case for the public interest than the removal, by the institution, of the chief executive of OHSU Health after less than four months,” Adam Gibbs, general counsel for the district attorney’s office, wrote in the order. “OHSU is among the largest public institutions in Oregon, and its health system’s leadership is a matter of genuine public consequence.”

In the lawsuit, OHSU states the records contain “sensitive health information protected by federal law,” though the complaint does not include additional details.

OHSU did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the litigation, but in its lawsuit, it argues the records should remain confidential.

OPB first sought the records after OHSU, which is a public university and hospital system, provided Willamette Week with witness statements from its investigation into Salaway – but not a full investigative file. After that article was published, OPB requested and received those same documents and also filed a public records request for the full investigative file.

“Although Salaway was the former OHSU Health CEO, he had a brief tenure of less than four months, and was terminated for professional and communication concerns, not for serious misconduct,” OHSU’s lawsuit states, arguing that public interest does not trump “OHSU’s confidentiality interest.”

In a press release on Tuesday, OPB referred to OHSU’s legal challenge as a “rare” and “retaliatory lawsuit.”

“OPB will not be intimidated in our pursuit of information on behalf of the communities we serve,” Rachel Smolkin, OPB’s president and CEO, said in the statement. “We will continue to report on this story, and we appreciate the DA’s diligent order and strong acknowledgement of the public interest.”

OHSU grapples with falling rank on patient safety measures

When OHSU announced Salaway’s hiring in November, the institution said he had a track record of working in “close partnership with clinicians and staff, to advance high-value clinical programs and ensure exceptional care and services to the patients and communities served.”

The witness statements OHSU agreed to release after firing Salaway portray him as trying to improve care, but said he could also be “condescending and arrogant, quick to cast aspersions on matters he still didn’t know much about,“ according to a summary by Willamette Week. The newspaper also reported “at one point said he would cut someone across the throat, before laughing in a ‘maniacal’ manner.’”

OPB health reporter Amelia Templeton asked OHSU for more documents about Salaway’s tenure, including an investigative file and a “full 360 review” – a type of performance review. OHSU is a state-run healthcare provider, and Templeton made the request under the process outlined by Oregon’s public records law.

The health provider rejected Templeton’s request for the full investigation. OHSU cited an exemption under Oregon’s public records law, which allows for documents about “personnel discipline action, or materials or documents supporting that action” to be withheld from the public.

OHSU President Shereef Elnahal declined to comment on Salaway’s firing during a news conference in April.

“He has chosen to put his perspective in the press; we are not doing that,” Elnahal said, referencing Salaway’s concerns about patient safety. “What I will say is I have not seen any evidence that new concerns have been raised by anybody since I’ve been here on patient safety and quality that aren’t being taken seriously and aren’t being addressed.”

OPB petitioned the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office over OHSU’s refusal to release the records.

On June 2, Gibbs said there is a strong public interest “in understanding how and why OHSU’s president concluded that its newly hired hospital chief executive could not continue in the role.”

Gibbs said OHSU cited an outdated legal test when it withheld the records about Salaway. The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled public bodies must presume records are disclosable, he said, and they need to make a strong case to overcome that presumption.

Under state law, OHSU was required to release public records under the DA order. Instead, it has sued to challenge the release. Now, a state court judge will decide.

Editor’s note: This article was written and reported by OPB’s Conrad Wilson and edited by OPB’s Courtney Sherwood and News Director Gillian Flaccus. No OPB executive reviewed this story before it was published.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/16/ohsu-sues-opb-seeking-to-withhold-records-about-fired-executive/