UVa Health CEO Craig Kent resigns

The news comes nearly six months after more than 100 UVa physicians and faculty members signed a letter of no confidence, claiming Kent committed multiple “egregious acts” during his tenure, including pressuring doctors to fraudulently bill patients and creating a “culture of fear and retaliation” within the health system.

Kent did not bow to that pressure, however.

He did, however, offer his resignation Tuesday to UVa President Jim Ryan after a special meeting of the UVa Board of Visitors, during which the university’s governing board was presented, behind closed doors, the findings of a monthslong investigation into the allegations against Kent.

“Following the meeting, Dr. Craig Kent offered, and President Ryan accepted, his resignation,” according to a brief statement sent by Ryan and UVa Rector Robert Hardie to UVa Health and the School of Medicine on Tuesday night. “The Board and the President thank Dr. Kent for his years of service to the University.”

In early September, 128 physicians and professors penned a letter of no confidence targeting both Kent and School of Medicine Dean Dr. Melina Kibbe. Less than two weeks later, the school brought on Washington, D.C.-based law firm Williams & Connolly, recognized as one of the world’s premier litigation firms, to look into the long list of procedural, ethical and legal violations outlined in the letter.

The university has not said if Kibbe has offered to resign.

While the results of the investigation may never be publicly disclosed, the allegations have been well-documented by the original letter’s signatories. According to those allegations, Kent and Kibbe:

• Allocated money to their cadre of executive colleagues despite shortages at the clinical level.
• Turned a blind eye as senior leaders tampered with billing and patient records to modify adverse outcomes and productivity.
• Wielded promotions as a means to intimidate and retaliate against those who spoke up out of concern for patients.
• Pressured medical personnel to not officially report concerns regarding patient safety.
• Ignored integrity and quality standards during the hiring process.
• And explicitly threatened those who spoke out against them.

“Craig Kent and Melina Kibbe have not only undermined but also directly attacked the values that inspired us to study, teach and work at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and UVa Health,” reads the letter. “[They] foster a negative environment that is contributing to an ongoing exodus of experience and expertise at all levels that contravenes with our mission to provide excellent — and safe — patient care.”

Since the letter was delivered to UVa administrators, The Daily Progress interviewed more than a dozen current and former hospital executives and physicians and medical school faculty members, all of whom agreed to speak under the condition of anonymity, to learn more about the allegations.

Every single person who spoke to The Daily Progress corroborated the allegations of the other. The Daily Progress’ sources detailed a toxic work environment under Kent, where speaking one’s mind could lead to demotion — or termination — patient safety and quality standards were ignored, and the focus of their work was solely “money and reputation.”

“What I saw were resource issues, staffing issues, prioritization of finance. The whole ‘profit over patients’ that guides all of it,” according to a former C-suite hospital executive. “There was some stuff that happened during COVID that made me have to evaluate if I could stay with the organization. That became a fairly easy choice.”

In the weeks after the letter of no confidence was delivered to administrators, members of the UVa Faculty Senate spoke up as well, saying that they had — on numerous occasions — brought their concerns to the attention of UVa’s administration. They wrote multiple open letters to Kent and Kibbe expressing concern over what they saw as a retaliatory and hostile work environment within the health system.

For months, they said, the university did nothing.

Even after more than 100 physicians and faculty members began to speak out, UVa’s president stood by hospital leadership. In his own address to the 1,400 members of the UVa School of Medicine, Ryan expressed both his disappointment in the authors of the letter and his endorsement of Kent and Kibbe. He referred to the accusations as “generalized and anonymous claims of wrongdoing” made by a handful of “dissatisfied” employees.

“At this point in time I find it difficult to believe that the right answer here is to force yet another change in leadership, only to bring in new leadership who will inevitably fail to satisfy 1,400 faculty members and thousands more health system team members,” Ryan said at the time.

“They have besmirched the reputations of not just Melina and Craig,” added the president. “Instead, through some of their allegations, they have unfairly — and I trust unwittingly — cast a shadow over the great work of the entire health system and medical school.”

Despite his show of support, Ryan did agree to bring on Williams & Connolly to look into the reported unethical behavior.

Many within the School of Medicine and UVa Medical Center raised concerns about the independence of such a review. Sometime in November, roughly 40 of those people brought on legal counsel to represent themselves during the investigation: Gladstone Jones, an attorney with the New Orleans-based Jones, Swanson, Huddell law firm.

Those who spoke up remained anonymous throughout the process. As their representative, Jones shared a statement with The Daily Progress after the news of Kent’s resignation.

“The courageous doctors who delivered and supported the September 2024 no confidence letter love their medical school, the hospital, their colleagues and patients, and the communities they have the honor to serve,” the statement reads. “They are thankful that the Board of Visitors listened today. The doctors look forward to making UVa Health the very best it can be.”

Kent arrived at UVa Health in 2020. Before arriving in Charlottesville, he served as dean of the Ohio State University School of Medicine — where he received his first letter of no confidence. Such a letter was sent to the then-CEO of the school’s Wexner Medical Center, Sheldon Retchin, in 2017, claiming that Retchin and his circle of high-level colleagues, including Kent, had cultivated a hostile work environment for employees.

The 2017 letter explicitly called out Kent, who had only been with the Ohio State health system for seven months at the time, saying he had already shown “an emerging pattern of leadership in line with the style promulgated by Dr. Retchin.”

At a meeting in December, UVa’s Board of Visitors approved a five-year extension of Kent’s contract, lasting through Jan. 31, 2030. Kent, who is already the highest-paid employee at UVa, secured a $500,000 raise this year, bringing his annual salary to $1.6 million.

Dr. Mitch Rosner, chair of the UVa Department of Medicine, has been identified as Kent’s interim replacement. He is to serve as acting executive vice president for health affairs until a permanent replacement can be found.