Oleg Borodin for Newsweek

Lauren Giella

By Lauren Giella

Senior Reporter

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Medical tourism may be on the rise, but Americans can still get the best treatments without needing a passport.

U.S. hospitals continue to excel on the global stage, with health systems like the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio earning top spots on Newsweek's latest ranking of the World’s Best Hospitals.

The ranking, produced in partnership with Statista, highlights the top hospitals in 32 featured countries, as well as a Global Top 250 list that identifies the best hospitals worldwide.

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"Finding more cures for patients is what drives our staff to transform health care so that new discoveries can benefit people everywhere,” Mayo Clinic President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia told Newsweek. “Over the past year, we accelerated that transformation through bold clinical innovation, rigorous quality improvement, and novel digital solutions, including responsibly integrating data, technology and artificial intelligence into patient care through Mayo Clinic Platform. This progress is fueled by the extraordinary expertise, compassion and commitment of our people, all working together to bring new cures within reach."

The ranking is based on hospital quality metrics, national and international recommendations from medical experts, patient experience data and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) implementation.

While the individual national lists only compare hospitals within the same country using the same data sources, the Global Top 250 list compiles hospitals from all 32 countries evaluated for the ranking.

Those countries include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

To continue to create the most accurate and comprehensive list, Statista made a few updates to the 2026 methodology. For example, the weight given to hospital quality metrics and PROMs implementation was increased and the PROMs Implementation Survey was revised to update the survey design and eligibility thresholds, according to Statista.

New accreditation data and quality metrics, including the addition of Leapfrog Hospital Safety and Quality Data in the U.S. ranking, were also incorporated into the scoring. The Leapfrog Hospital Survey is a voluntary annual survey that assesses a broad range of safety and quality metrics created and administered by the Leapfrog Group, an independent, national, not-for-profit organization that advocates for hospital transparency.

Two new countries—Turkey and the Philippines—were also added to the list to expand global coverage and “provide readers with the most comprehensive ranking of the World’s Best Hospital," Statista said.

The United States has the most hospitals in the Global Top 250, with 41, followed by Germany with 22 hospitals. Sixteen U.S. states are represented on the list; California has eight hospitals and both Massachusetts and New York have four each.

The top ten U.S. hospitals on the Global Top 250 list are:

Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals, two Boston-based hospitals that are part of the Mass General Brigham integration health care system, both improved their global ranking in 2026.

Mass General moved up one spot from No. 6 in the 2025 list to enter the top 5, while Brigham and Women’s climbed from No. 21 to No. 18. According to Statista, both hospitals improved their quality metrics score, had solid CMS and Leapfrog scores on their national ranking and submitted new PROMs data.

There are two U.S. hospitals that are new to the Global Top 250 list: Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital (No. 25) and Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital (No. 246).

NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center landed at the No. 87 spot on the Global Top 250 list and No. 17 on the U.S. national list. It was listed on previous rankings as New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell.

Dr. Colleen Koch, group senior vice president and chief operating officer at NewYork Presbyterian/Columbia, said that the Irving Medical Center stands apart from other hospitals in its ability to care for the most complex, high-acuity patients.

“We have a deeply rooted commitment to delivering the highest‑quality, most compassionate care in virtually every field of medicine,” she told Newsweek over email. “Our team is united around a culture built on trust, empathy, integrity and respect. We are focused on providing world‑class care to every person who comes through the doors, regardless of circumstance. This commitment, coupled with our pursuit of innovation and clinical excellence, is what defines us.”

The Global Top 250 list takes the national rank into consideration, as well as the number of international recommendations, PROMS implementation excellence, quality metrics and patience experience data and a bibliometric score based on research outputs.

Koch said the hospital is improving in these areas by focusing on “zero preventable harm and optimal patient outcomes” by promoting timely, efficient, safe, effective and equitable patient-centred care.

“We use objective performance measures and apply structured, science‑based problem‑solving to drive continuous improvement,” she said. “Another key factor is fostering a culture grounded in respect, transparency, belonging and accountability to help ensure that staff feel valued and empowered to communicate concerns, innovate and contribute to better outcomes.”

Koch said she is proud of the hospital’s people, culture, its steadfast commitment to patients, groundbreaking research and innovation and its “extraordinary outcomes that reflect world-class expertise."

“Ultimately, we are proud to be the hospital that consumers trust,” she said.

The full list of the World's Best Hospitals in each of the 32 countries and the Global Top 250 list can be found here.

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