Leading with Heart: Rooted in Humanity

Good health doesn’t begin in the hospital or the clinic. It starts in our communities, our homes, our schools, and our workplaces. It involves mind, body, and spirit. Caring for all three is the reason Duke Health exists. We value our responsibility as a healthcare system and are committed to providing quality, fairness-based care for all.

Health care is more than a job for those at Duke Health — it’s our purpose. Each of us has a moral responsibility to advance the health for all those who come to us for care. We believe that delivering exceptional care, groundbreaking research, and top-notch education requires us to understand the fiber of who we are as an organization.

We pledge to create a community that is stronger, healthier, and more just for all. At Duke Health, we put all people first, and:

1.) We stand for civility, humanity, and compassion.
2.) We treat all people with respect. We value our differences. We care for one another through kindness and an understanding that life is precious.
3.) We recognize our own preferences and actively seek, listen and respond to feedback from others for our personal growth and development.
4.) We stand for high quality care as a human right.
5.) We are guided by science and know that exceptional research and healthcare will happen through comprehensive care for all. To deliver the most holistic care, we must ensure access to treatments so that every individual can achieve optimal health.
6.) We are dedicated to educating ourselves and future professionals in healthcare, science, and technology to recognize, embrace, and commit to caring for everyone.
7.) We use our expertise to study health disparities. We actively engage all community members to guide and lead our research to improve population health outcomes. We commit to translating that research into practice, sharing our learnings as we encourage other institutions to do the same.
8.) We are committed to standing for values and actions that promote health for all communities. We partner with our communities for the public good, including education, job training, affordable housing, food security, and access to healthcare.

Today, and every day, our commitment to bring hope, health, and healing to those in need drives our commitment to advancing care together, serving our communities, and caring for all. We recognize this is a journey and we will continue to strive to be the best version of ourselves.