NYU Langone Health’s neurosurgery department has held the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for years, and John Golfinos, MD, the department’s chair, said the reason has less to do with any single surgeon’s talent and everything to do with culture.
“I always want to be able to say NYU, no matter what, is the best possible place,” Dr. Golfinos said. “That’s the vision that you know has been sort of suffused through the whole department.”
He said one way he achieves this goal is by making recruiting a top priority.
When Dr. Golfinos took over the department in 2009, his mandate from then-Dean Bob Grossman was simple: Go get “A” players. He recruited established leaders in their subspecialties from institutions including the University of Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan.
But talent alone was not the bar. Every hire also has to pass a second test.
“My greatest successes have been in recruiting the best possible people, but with the caveat that they have to be someone who we know will be friends outside the hospital,” Dr. Golfinos said. “Doing neurosurgery is really hard. And if you can do it with your friends, then it becomes a great thing.”
That philosophy is a deliberate break from the department’s earlier approach. Before Dr. Golfinos took over, faculty operated in solo private practice and, in his words, were “stealing cases from each other.” Ending that competitive dynamic was the first change he made.
“That’s the opposite of collaboration, and you can’t create a department that way,” he said.
Another recruitment strategy Dr. Golfinos uses is bringing in a diverse group of experts. He said each new hire should bring something new to the table.
“I sort of charge each one of my faculty members with being really great at one super-specialized thing,” he said, pointing to his own focus on NF2-associated tumors as an example. The same model extends across the department, which includes dedicated skull base surgeons, a chordoma team and a glioma program built around a recruit from Michigan.
The result of this structure directly relates to de-emphasizing competition, according to Dr. Golfinos: If a colleague is the world’s expert in a given case, it goes to them.
“I’m not going to do a chordoma case,” he said. “You have two people here who are world famous for that disease. I’m not going to take on a case when I know the world’s expert in that case is in this department. That doesn’t make sense.”
Dr. Golfinos said he works to turn neurosurgeons’ “natural competitiveness” away from each other’s cases and towards the mission of providing the highest-quality care for patients.
“We’re not doing it for us,” he said. “We’re doing it for the sake of the poor person on the operating room table.”
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
