Vienna General Hospital (AKH) and the university clinics it runs with the Medical University (MedUni) of Vienna have achieved 20th place in a ranking of the top 250 hospitals in the world. This is a result to be extremely proud of – after attaining a creditable 27th place in 2025, Vienna’s hospital has taken its place amongst the elite of international medical facilities.
Pole position was awarded to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (USA), with the University Health Network - Toronto General Hospital (Canada) coming in as runner-up and the Cleveland Clinic (USA) taking third place. The Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset (Sweden), which came fourth, was the highest-scoring European hospital. No less than six other Austrian hospitals made it into the top 250.
The US magazine Newsweek has been working with the data company Statista to produce its “World’s Best Hospitals” ranking since 2019. Comparable criteria are used to determine which countries are admissible in the rankings, including population size, life expectancy, living standards, hospital distribution and the availability of reliable data. Hospitals from eleven countries were initially assessed, and Austria entered the field in 2021. The roster of nations has now risen to 32, with the Philippines and Türkiye featuring for the first time this year. The data used include national hospital quality metrics, online surveys of medical staff and patient questionnaires.
This year’s assessment included more than 2,500 hospitals, with the 250 best achieving special recognition and a mention in the rankings. This was not only the highest placing ever attained by the AKH General Hospital/MedUni of Vienna, it was also both an acknowledgment of their incredible achievements and international profile, and an appreciation of the untiring efforts of all the hospital’s professional staff. The group runs 29 university clinics with some 400 ambulances, treating 65,000 in-patients a year and answering some 1.2 million paramedic call-outs. Patient care, research and teaching all take place in-house and are closely interlinked, making it possible to train qualified experts, produce international studies and undertake groundbreaking research under one roof. This is also reflected in the fantastic result achieved, which highlights Vienna and Austria’s position as a centre for research.
The result is yet another feather in the cap for Vienna’s MedUni, as the institution has also made great strides in this year’s “Times Higher Education World University Rankings”, rising from the 201-250 band to 181st place.
