Hospitals in Germany

Hospitals in Germany accept patients from abroad: a department reviews the records and scans, the hospital sends a cost estimate and sets a date, and the choice of hospital follows the diagnosis. Hospitals in Germany are not one list of “the best” but several types: university centres, general hospitals, single-specialty centres and rehabilitation clinics. So nobody should be sent “to Germany” in general: what matters is not how loud the name is but who treats this particular problem regularly.

This directory covers 86 partner hospitals in 38 cities — Munich, where the company has its office, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Heidelberg and others. It does not list all German hospitals, of which there are about 1,800, but each partner hospital has its own card here with a short description of its profile and city.

How hospitals in Germany are organised

Hospitals in Germany are graded by level of care, from basic care (Grundversorgung) up to maximum care (Maximalversorgung), where the university hospitals sit. A basic-care hospital covers internal medicine and general surgery for its area, the next levels add departments such as gynaecology and obstetrics or urology, and a maximum-care hospital takes on almost everything, including the rarest and most complex cases. Some large municipal hospitals such as Klinikum Stuttgart also provide maximum care. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) shows the scale: more than 80 clinics, outpatient clinics and institutes in 13 centres, and around 98,000 inpatients and 497,000 outpatients a year. For a rare or complex disease, this means specialists, laboratories and experience gathered in one place.

Four names come up most often: Krankenhaus means hospital, Klinikum a large hospital with many departments, Universitätsklinikum a university hospital and Fachklinik a single-specialty hospital. Klinikum does not mean a private clinic: Klinikum rechts der Isar is the university hospital of the Technical University of Munich, with a history going back to 1834, and Klinikum Stuttgart is owned by the city. A German hospital here means one located in Germany. Hospitals abroad whose branding includes the word German or American exist, for example in Dubai and Cairo, but they belong neither to the German health system nor to this directory, which covers German hospitals in Germany only.

Public, church-run and private hospitals differ in who owns them, not in the standard of medicine. Public hospitals belong to the federal states, cities and districts, non-profit ones mostly to churches, religious orders and foundations, private ones to companies; private hospitals are the most numerous but smaller on average, and public hospitals hold almost half of all beds. Whoever owns a German hospital, the same medical quality rules apply, and every hospital approved for statutory health insurance publishes a quality report each year. Departments are also certified by medical societies: cancer centres through the certification system of the German Cancer Society, joint replacement centres through EndoCert, stroke units through the German Stroke Society. A certified cancer centre has to pass an audit every year, so its certificate says more than the sign over the door.

List of hospitals in Germany by section

The list of hospitals in Germany below has ten sections, the two largest being university hospitals and general hospitals. University hospitals in Germany account for 19 partners, all of them maximum-care hospitals where rare and complex diseases are treated and research groups work next to the wards. The 27 general hospitals are municipal, church-run and private hospitals with a complete set of core departments, the right place for conditions that do not need a university centre, such as a planned gallbladder or hernia operation.

The other sections are focused centres for one organ or one group of diseases: 6 heart centres, 3 cancer centres, 8 orthopaedic and trauma clinics, 4 eye hospitals, 3 children’s hospitals, 8 neurology and rehabilitation clinics and 3 specialist clinics for urology, fertility treatment and plastic surgery. The German Heart Center at Charité (DHZC), for example, has 470 beds on three campuses and treats only the heart and circulation. Tumours are also treated in the oncology departments of university and general hospitals, as the page Cancer hospitals in Germany explains.

The 5 hospital groups work differently: one management, dozens of hospitals, several cities. A group can make it easier to find a suitable department elsewhere, but treatment still happens in one specific hospital with its own doctors, so it is chosen like any other: by the department and its experience with your diagnosis.

What hospital rankings in Germany really measure

Rankings measure reputation and hospital-wide statistics, while the right hospital for you is the one where your diagnosis is treated often and routinely. Asking which hospital is best is fair, but a hospital that excels at liver transplants and one that excels at spinal surgery are very likely two different places. Ask what is the most popular hospital in Germany, and the first name you will hear is the Charité in Berlin: a matter of reputation, not an answer to where your own diagnosis should be treated.

Hospital rankings in Germany are compiled in different ways from similar building blocks: recommendations from doctors, case numbers and complication rates from quality reports, equipment, certificates and sometimes nursing and hygiene indicators. They are a reasonable starting point but do not show what matters to a patient from abroad: the wait for a date, the language the staff will speak with you, how quickly the hospital prepares an estimate. And a hospital’s overall place is built from many departments, while you will be treated in one.

Three things tell you more. The first is a specialist centre certificate, for a cancer centre, a stroke unit or a joint replacement centre. The second is the number of procedures a year for your diagnosis: for some complex planned operations Germany sets minimum volumes (Mindestmengen), and a hospital may perform pancreatic or oesophageal surgery, liver, kidney and heart transplants, breast and lung cancer operations or total knee replacement only if it reaches the set minimum each year. The third is the quality report (Qualitätsbericht) published every year by each hospital working under statutory health insurance: it shows how many patients with which diagnoses a department treated and which operations it performed, and how often.

The honest conclusion is to compare a hospital with your case, not hospitals with each other: a good department treats your diagnosis regularly, is open about its numbers and sends a plan and an estimate before you travel. A good hospital is always good for a particular disease. Lists and year-by-year rankings are reviewed on the page about published hospital rankings.

What German hospital names mean

German hospital names describe size and role, not quality. Krankenhaus is the everyday word for hospital, so “Krankenhaus hospital Germany” says the same thing twice, and a modern German hospital with thousands of staff may still call itself a Krankenhaus. Anyone puzzled by “Klinikum hospital Germany” should know that Klinikum is the German word for a large hospital with many departments. A Klinik may be a small private hospital or one department of a large one, and a Zentrum, or centre, groups several departments around one organ or disease.

Department names tell you where to write. Klinik für Kardiologie is the department of cardiology, Klinik und Poliklinik für Urologie a urology department with wards and an outpatient clinic, and the head of a department is the Chefarzt. To find the right one, start from your diagnosis, not from the hospital’s front page: check which department lists your condition, who heads it, whether it holds a relevant certificate and whether it has a contact for patients from abroad.

A German medical centre with almost the same name can exist in two cities. The German Heart Centre in Munich, now part of TUM Klinikum, and the German Heart Center at Charité in Berlin are two different hospitals, and in Munich itself Klinikum rechts der Isar and the private ISAR Klinikum are unrelated. Before sending records to a medical center in Germany, check the city, full name, postal address and web address, and make sure the department you write to belongs to that hospital.

How to match a hospital to your diagnosis

Start from the diagnosis and the records, not from the city: discharge summaries, test results, specialist reports, the actual CT or MRI images on a disc and, for a tumour, the histology report, the examination of a tissue sample. A request from abroad is reviewed by a doctor in the department it is sent to, so complete records mean a more precise answer. The department’s profile matters more than the city, and a strong department for your condition may be far from where friends live.

Before you travel, ask the department a few direct questions. How many patients with this diagnosis does it treat each year? Who will operate or lead the treatment? Is the case discussed at a tumour board, where surgeons, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists decide together? How long is the stay, and what follows discharge: check-ups, rehabilitation, contact with your doctor at home? Medical clinics in Germany are used to such questions, and how a department answers tells you more than any brochure.

Sometimes a second opinion comes before the search for a hospital: when the diagnosis is not final, when a major operation that cannot be undone is proposed, or when several treatment options are equally reasonable, as can happen with prostate cancer. A German specialist can give a second opinion remotely, on the records; only then do you decide which hospital fits, and sometimes the trip turns out to be unnecessary.

How contacting a hospital works: request, estimate, travel

A hospital in Germany can be contacted directly, through its international office, or through an organiser, and either way there are three steps: the request with records, the estimate with prepayment, and the travel. Going direct, you write in German or English, send the records and handle the correspondence yourself; an organiser takes over translation, the search for a department and contact with the hospital. What the difference means in practice is covered on the Treatment in Germany page.

A foreign patient is usually billed as a private payer: after the department’s medical review, the hospital prepares a cost estimate (Kostenvoranschlag) in the patient’s name. Many hospitals require prepayment of the estimated amount, and the final invoice covers the care actually given: overpayments are refunded, shortfalls paid. If the plan changes, for example when another operation or examination is needed, the new items are agreed separately. Guide figures are on the Treatment prices in Germany page.

The trip is prepared once the estimate is agreed: after prepayment the hospital confirms the appointment for the visa, and you will need an interpreter at appointments, accommodation near the hospital for you and a companion, and someone to meet you at the airport. When the appointment can happen depends on the department and on how complete the records are; the hospital names the date. The general order of steps is on the page How to get treatment in Germany.

Frequently asked questions

Are hospitals in Germany good?

On the whole, yes: German hospitals work under binding national quality rules, minimum volumes apply to a number of complex operations, and hospitals treating patients under statutory insurance publish a yearly quality report with case numbers and results. Standards still vary between departments, so judge the department rather than the country. As a foreign patient, expect a cost estimate and prepayment, an interpreter at appointments and a date set by the hospital.

What is a hospital called in Germany?

The everyday word is Krankenhaus, literally a “house for the sick”. Klinikum usually means a large hospital with many departments, Universitätsklinikum or simply Uniklinik a university hospital, and Fachklinik a single-specialty hospital. Klinik can be a separate, often small private hospital or a department inside a large one: Klinik für Kardiologie is the cardiology department. That is why letters should carry the full name of both the hospital and the department.

Which city in Germany is best for medical treatment?

No single city wins: large medical centres exist in Berlin (Charité), Munich (LMU Klinikum and Klinikum rechts der Isar), Hamburg (UKE), Heidelberg and many other cities. Choose the city by the profile of your disease, not by fame: what counts is where your diagnosis is treated often and where the department holds a certificate from the relevant medical society. Distances in Germany are short, so travelling to another city for the right department is reasonable.

How AlenMed matches the hospital

AlenMed matches the hospital to the diagnosis, not to a ranking. The company works with 86 partner hospitals in 38 cities and 345 doctors, and its office is in Munich. First comes the disease and the treatment under discussion, then the departments that deal with it regularly, and only then a comparison of cities, dates and estimates.

The company arranges a remote opinion from a German doctor on the records, sends the request to a suitable department, obtains the hospital’s own cost estimate, helps with the visa invitation, provides an interpreter at appointments, meets you on arrival and finds accommodation near the hospital for you and a companion. Treatment decisions are made by the hospital’s doctors, and you see the estimate before you pay.

This page is for information only and is not an offer. Treatment is decided by a doctor at an in-person consultation.

Find a hospital

Choose a group or search by name, city or field. All hospitals are listed by group below.

Hospital groups

University hospitals

General hospitals

Heart centres

Cancer centres

Orthopaedics and trauma

Neurology and rehabilitation

Children's hospitals

Eye hospitals

Specialist clinics

Hospital groups