For a third consecutive year, Newsweek partnered with Statistica to ascertain the World’s Best Hospitals in 2021, what the media outlet calls its ‘most important ranking yet’.

We won’t hold you in suspense unnecessarily: for it’s third consecutive year, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, was crowned the world’s best hospital in 2021, and coming up second, third, fourth and fifth respectively were Cleveland Clinic in the US, Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, Toronto General - University Health Network in Canada and The Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US.

Berlin’s Charité - Universitätsmedizin hospital ranked sixth, Sweden’s Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset came seventh, eighth was Singapore General Hospital, and nineth and 10th were Switzerland’s Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.

How things have changed over a year

Compared to Newsweek’s 2020 rankings, not much has changed, aside from the fact that Berlin’s Charité - Universitätsmedizin hospital has dropped a ranking spot in 2021, to be overtaken by The Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US; and Sweden’s Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset hospital this year moved up from 10th place to seventh, while Switzerland’s Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois dropped from seventh place in 2020 to ninth place in 2021.

Newsweek notes that this list it has compiled is not exhaustive – hospitals with certain specialties can be found on separate lists, where they are comparable with hospitals that possess similar specialties. The aforementioned hospitals have been judged based on: recommendations from medical experts (doctors, hospitals managers, healthcare professionals); results from patient surveys; and medical KPIs on hospitals.

Best hospitals by country

By country, for example, the best hospital in Australia was The Alfred in Melbourne, scoring 89 per cent; in the UK, St Thomas' Hospital in London came out on top, with a score of 87.82 per cent; in Brazil, San Paolo’s Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein scored the best, at 89.47 per cent; in Mexico, it was Hospital Médica Sur, with a score of 93.29 per cent; in Spain, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona got 93.9 per cent; and, in Thailand, Bumrungrad International Hospital achieved the highest score of 92.05 per cent.

Best hospitals by speciality

In terms of countries with the best specialty facilities, Germany and the US seem to boast the widest spread of trusted cardiology facilities; the best oncology facilities are focused across the US, the UK, Japan, Italy, India and France; orthopaedics in the UK, the US, Switzerland, Italy and Germany; and traumatology in Germany and Canada.

You can read the media outlet’s full methodology behind the 2021 list and further hospital rankings on its webpage.