Best Hospitals in the World 2022
For two years now, the world’s hospitals have been at the forefront of the ever-evolving medical war against COVID-19. According to the experts who helped compile the results of our annual ranking of the world’s best hospitals, this meant learning to quickly adapt to new and existing challenges and improvise on the fly.
For example, according to Dr. Gary S. Kaplan, chairman and CEO of the Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle, “The pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of healthcare workers around the world, especially in nursing.”
David Bates, director of general internal medicine and primary care at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (No. 17 in Newsweek’s list of the world’s best hospitals), says: “We had to convert beds to intensive care beds very quickly and close large departments of the hospital. and then come up with staff to cover those beds. There were also big challenges managing our supply chain for things like ventilators and personal protective equipment.”
Dr. Christoph Meyer, Head of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Zurich (No. 15 on our list of world leaders), says: “There are many lessons to be learned from COVID, such as recognizing the effectiveness of virtual meetings, appreciating the importance of hospital hygiene, and emphasizing the importance of generalists over with disparate specializations. The biggest challenge was setting individual priorities together to achieve a common goal.”
Many medical institutions have struggled with these and other challenges over the course of the pandemic, but what sets the world’s leading hospitals apart is their continued ability to deliver high-quality patient care and critical medical research, even as they focus on fighting COVID. Indeed, as Newsweek and Statista’s fourth annual ranking of the world’s best hospitals shows, the hallmark of these institutions is consistency in excellence, with familiar names dominating the list and taking first place.
According to Dr. Gregory Katz, professor of innovation and value in healthcare at the University of Paris School of Medicine, hospitals that have done better during the pandemic have learned to work faster through better communication and overcoming internal barriers. The most important speed factor is the wide participation of hospital teams. If there is one thing we take away from our fight against COVID-19, it is the value of preparation. For hospital leaders, it’s all about choice, not chance.”
Dr. Jens Dierberg-Wittram, CEO and president of Germany’s non-profit healthcare system Romed Kliniken, says a lot of that preparation comes down to being willing to pay for whatever is needed to treat very sick people. “Because of the pandemic, we have learned,” he says, “that the hospitals that really matter in the global crisis have expensive and resource-intensive infrastructure, such as emergency rooms, intensive care units, ECMO. [extracorporeal membrane oxygen machines] etc”.
How do leading hospitals manage to maintain their top status in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended the medical world? The ability and commitment to continuous innovation is key, and top talent is at the heart of it. As Bates says, “Top-class hospitals remain strong mainly by attracting the best people, those who are focused on developing new approaches to care and improving care.”
Kaplan adds: “The best hospitals maintain their excellence by having clear missions and inspiring visions that lead to a constancy of purpose that guides all staff on a daily basis. This must be combined with leadership consistency and consistency that ensures coherence from the boardroom to the front lines. care”.
According to Dierberg-Wittram, “A certain intellectual mindset, an academic culture, a strong focus on patient outcomes, and an inspiring environment for young talent are the ingredients for a first-class hospital that has been around for decades.”
This year’s ranking is an expanded universe that includes three new countries – Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – bringing the total number of hospitals to over 2,200 across 27 countries. And the results show a remarkable cross-section of excellence around the world, with 21 countries represented in the global top 150. The US leads with 33 hospitals, followed by Germany with 14; Italy and France 10 each; and South Korea with eight. Overall, 13 new hospitals were included in this year’s top 100. Among the most notable changes from last year’s rankings were the 14th Universitätsspital Basel, up from 35th last year; Northwestern Memorial Hospital No. 28 (58 in 2021); Seoul Samsung Medical Center No. 43 (73) and NYU Langone Hospital No. 59 (86).
The purpose of this study is to provide the best data-driven comparison of the reputation and performance of hospitals across countries. We hope this will be helpful not only to patients and their families who are looking for the best possible care for themselves and their loved ones, but also to hospitals as they compare themselves to their peers during a time of unprecedented change.
