UVA Health CEO resigns

Dr. K. Craig Kent, UVA’s executive vice president for health affairs and CEO of UVA Health, resigned his position in late February after a special meeting of the Board of Visitors.

In September, a group of faculty members from the UVA Physicians Group sent the BOV a letter of no confidence about Kent and Dr. Melina Kibbe, dean of the School of Medicine and chief health affairs officer for UVA Health. The letter contained serious allegations against the two, claiming that they compromise patient safety and oversee a culture of fear and retaliation against staff. It also criticized excessive spending and a lack of transparency on financial issues.

That month, the university hired the Washington, D.C., law firm Williams & Connolly to conduct an independent investigation into the accusations. Over the next several months, the firm interviewed more than 160 people and reviewed tens of thousands of documents, according to a statement from the BOV. On Feb. 25, the BOV received the results of the investigation in closed session. That evening, President James E. Ryan (Law class of ’92) accepted Kent’s resignation.

In a letter to the UVA Health community, Ryan wrote that there were “sufficient concerns about leadership and trust that Dr. Kent recognized would make it difficult to remain in his position, which is why Dr. Kent stepped down.”

However, both the letter from Ryan and the statement from the BOV say that there was no cause for action on billing or any other regulatory compliance issues. Neither message mentions Kibbe.

Dr. Mitchell H. Rosner (Res class of ’00, Fellow class of ’02), chair of the Department of Medicine, has been tapped to serve as the interim executive vice president for health affairs while the university launches a national search for a new one, Ryan wrote.

UVA Health includes the Medical Center, UVA Community Health, the UVA Physicians Group, the School of Nursing, the School of Medicine and the health sciences library. Its FY25 operating budget is $4.5 billion.

Kent was appointed in February 2020. In December 2023, the BOV added five more years to his initial five-year term, extending it to Jan. 31, 2030.

Kibbe was appointed to a five-year term in September 2021.