NYU Langone Health entered 2026 with a No. 1 ranking from Vizient as the nation’s top academic medical center for quality and safety, and all 13 of its specialties placed in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report.
Vizient’s 2026 Quality and Accountability rankings listed NYU Langone first among 122 comprehensive academic medical centers, and also recognized its faculty group practice as the top-performing ambulatory medical group nationally. Years of hard work and dedicated culture building culminated in those recognitions, and Fritz François, MD, executive vice president, vice dean and chief of hospital operations at the New York City-based system, aren’t stopping there.
“Our focus over the past year has been first and foremost on culture, which is something we continually work on. The importance of that actually is we have a culture of exceptionalism, and we believe that it’s important to continue to focus on our staff, on the opportunities for growth and professional development,” he said during an interview with “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “As a reflection of that, we’ve had a number of prestigious awards this year recognizing us as a place where individuals want to come and have careers.”
Central to that investment is a hiring strategy that looks beyond traditional candidate pools.
“We have focus on hiring military veterans, people with disabilities, new graduates, having entry level workers, and that has contributed significantly to developing an amazing culture where it is about focusing on exceptionalism,” Dr. François said. “I would point to that as a key area for us, and the second focus is on quality and safety. That’s our brand and as a reflection of all the amazing work that so many people have done this past year, we have been recognized by Vizient as the No. 1 academic medical center for quality and safety, and we are extremely proud of that.”
The “exceptionalism” ethos extends beyond quality and safety to include access as well. The demand for healthcare is increasing in New York City, as in many markets and delivering world-class healthcare means adding ambulatory practices and bringing care closer to patients in addition to expanding existing hospitals.
“We’ve continued to engage various partners and we are planning on new inpatients spaces,” said Dr. François. “Those are some of the things that we’re continuing to work on in 2026.”
The balance isn’t easy for any healthcare enterprise, but especially for academic systems with a mandate to provide patient care, innovation, research and train the next generation of healthcare providers, it’s near impossible. But Dr. François and his team keeps the focus on delivering the best care possible to patients. They are singularly focused on serving the community.
“How can we bring care closer to them? How can we engage the communities in which they live so we can ensure that it’s not just those touch points when they come to the clinic or where they come to the ED or the hospital, but also we’re thinking about how we ensure that when the transition back home happens, they have the support they actually need and the environment and network to support them,” he said. “That’s been our philosophy and a guiding principle for us.”
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