Duke University Hospital was named one of the best hospitals in America last week in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 “Best Hospitals” rankings, but a doctor who was recently fired from Duke for openly criticizing the hospital’s internal politics is speaking out. 

Dr. Kendall Conger, an emergency room physician at Duke Raleigh Hospital, says he was terminated without cause earlier this year after questioning Duke’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. In 2021, Duke sent a drafted pledge to employees that racism is a public health crisis and requires equity, instead of equality, in healthcare.

“In the pledge, it said we are guided by science, and it was signed by medical doctors,” Conger said in an interview. “I don’t understand that at all. All doctors and nurses try and do our best. It looks bad on us if a patient doesn’t do well. So it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Conger, whose been a doctor at Duke for 12 years, questioned the “science” of racism being considered a health crisis. He said most of his colleagues in the emergency department felt the same way, but they wouldn’t speak up. 

“The majority of people in my ER department agreed with me,” said Conger.  “And almost without fault, they all say, ‘Kendall, we completely agree with you, you’re right, but we can’t say anything. It’s like poking the bear.’”

He decided to ask his superiors for scientific evidence because keeping quiet would be giving “tacit approval” to what was in the pledge. Although questions and concerns were welcomed in a letter sent to employees, he never received a direct answer. In what was a drawn-out process of working his way up the chain of command in search of data, he was never provided with evidence to support the claim. 

Conger also raised questions about the hospital’s pledge to equitable access to treatment. Last year, he wrote an op-ed, published in the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, in which he slammed the hospital’s pledge as not being guided by science. He pointed to the difference between equality and equity, explaining that the first allows for equal rights and opportunity while the latter promotes equal outcomes.

He was notified of his termination without cause at the beginning of 2024, and his last day was at the end of June. Duke did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“They just terminated me without cause, which means I did nothing medically or ethically wrong, so they had to give me six months’ notice, as per contract,” said Conger. “They just didn’t like working with me.”

Diversity is a Duke value that’s impacting its staff abilities, as Conger witnessed firsthand working in the emergency room. Conger said that as Duke started to put more emphasis on DEI, it’s come at the expense of merit and medical abilities. He directly asked hospital leaders if diversity is a specific goal or a byproduct of seeking the best and the brightest.

“We’ve noticed a decline in the performance of the students that they’re giving us,” Conger concluded. “We’re like, this can’t be. This has to be a DEI hire. I mean, this is what we’re saying, right? We know they’ve got better candidates. We work with them.”

The organization Color Us United launched a campaign against Duke Health earlier this month for its “divisive political ideology.” The group says its focus on race in medicine has become a part of its hiring and training and may potentially compromise patient care. 

Kenny Xu, president of Color Us United, referred to the Harvard admissions decision that disbanded race-based admissions and reemphasized the importance of merit. He says the decision was the start, not the end, because universities must still comply.

“If we don’t push as Americans, we’ll keep seeing it happen,” Xu said. “We want to make North Carolina the most merit-based state, a model for others, so we can be the leading light in the nation.”

If Duke rescinds its DEI framework, as the group is pushing for, it would be the first private institution to do so. 

“If we can do it at an elite private university and private hospital, that’s going to add a brand new angle that we’re attacking from,” Xu concluded.