ENA Bad Cannstatt hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, usually means Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt, one of the sites of the municipal Klinikum Stuttgart. Bad Cannstatt is a district of Stuttgart on the River Neckar.
The district also had a second hospital, the Red Cross hospital (Krankenhaus vom Roten Kreuz). It stopped operating as a hospital at the end of 2023 and since 2 January 2024 has been wholly owned by Klinikum Stuttgart. This page explains the Bad Cannstatt site, its departments and how a patient from abroad is admitted.
Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt Within Klinikum Stuttgart
Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt is part of Klinikum Stuttgart, a group formed in 1999 when four municipal hospitals merged: Bürgerhospital, Katharinenhospital, Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt and Olgahospital. In practice this means one operator and shared specialists and diagnostics, but several addresses: a patient may be examined in one building and treated in another. Today the group has three hospitals, Katharinenhospital, Olgahospital and Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt, and between 2022 and 2024 it took over Sportklinik Stuttgart, the Red Cross hospital and Sana Herzchirurgie Stuttgart.
Klinikum Stuttgart is an academic teaching hospital of the University of Tübingen: as in other teaching hospitals in Germany, medical students train here. Its operator is the City of Stuttgart, so it is a municipal hospital. The figures the hospital publishes describe the whole group, not the Bad Cannstatt site: about 90,000 inpatients and about 600,000 outpatient cases a year, and about 9,500 staff.
Departments at the Bad Cannstatt Site
Several clinics work at the Bad Cannstatt site, including general, visceral and transplant surgery, which has its own unit here next to its unit at the Katharinenhospital. The department list shows this clinic (Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie) with two units, marked KBC (Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt) and KH (Katharinenhospital). The invitation letter should therefore show at which site the operation takes place: one clinic name, two buildings.
Besides surgery, Bad Cannstatt houses internal medicine, which treats diseases of the stomach and bowel, including tumours, together with the surgeons; the Centre for Dermatology, Phlebology and Allergology; radiology and neuroradiology; most of the Centre for Mental Health (Zentrum für Seelische Gesundheit), that is, psychiatry and psychotherapy; and the Sportklinik, which treats sports injuries of the arms and legs. Some services have moved to the central campus: the main inpatient trauma surgery and orthopaedics now take place at the Mitte site, in the new Katharinenhospital building. Bad Cannstatt keeps outpatient clinics, sports medicine and the outpatient surgery centre.
Radiology, nuclear medicine and pathology are organised at group level and serve all its hospitals. So the appointment states where an examination takes place; it is not always the building with the ward.
The Red Cross Hospital in Bad Cannstatt: What Happened to It
The Krankenhaus vom Roten Kreuz in Bad Cannstatt stopped operating as a hospital at the end of 2023, and its patients have since been treated at Klinikum Stuttgart. Since 2 January 2024 it has been wholly owned by Klinikum Stuttgart, and its pulmonology, the care of lung diseases, moved to the Mitte site at the Katharinenhospital. There it now works as the Clinic for Pneumology and Ventilation Medicine (Klinik für Pneumologie und Beatmungsmedizin).
Practical advice: older discharge letters and directories still show the former address of the Red Cross hospital. So check the full name and street address of the site in every letter, because taxis, relatives and interpreters otherwise go to the wrong building.
Bad Cannstatt, Katharinenhospital or Robert Bosch Hospital
Bad Cannstatt and the Katharinenhospital are sites of one group, while the Robert Bosch Hospital is a separate hospital. The Katharinenhospital is the central campus of Klinikum Stuttgart, at the Mitte site. The Robert Bosch Hospital is foundation-run, one of the few private foundation hospitals in Germany. Sportklinik Stuttgart specialises in orthopaedics and sports injuries and has been part of Klinikum Stuttgart since the end of 2022.
The choice depends on the diagnosis and the department, not on the district. For diseases of the stomach and bowel it may be surgery at Bad Cannstatt, for lung disease pulmonology at the Katharinenhospital; the hospital’s doctors decide which department fits after reviewing the reports.
Frequently asked questions
Is Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt the same as Klinikum Stuttgart?
Not quite: Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt is one of the sites of Klinikum Stuttgart, not a separate hospital. The group has one operator, the City of Stuttgart, but several addresses, including the Katharinenhospital and the Olgahospital at the Mitte site. So the invitation letter names both the clinic and the site, and both matter for the journey.
Where is lung disease treated now that the Red Cross hospital has closed?
At the Katharinenhospital on the Mitte site: the pulmonology of the former Red Cross hospital moved there, and since 2024 it has worked as Klinikum Stuttgart’s Clinic for Pneumology and Ventilation Medicine. The old building in Bad Cannstatt no longer takes patients as a hospital, so check the place of the appointment in the invitation letter before travelling.
How do I know in which building my operation will take place?
The hospital’s invitation letter names the site, department, address and date. This matters because the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery has two units, at Bad Cannstatt and at the Katharinenhospital, and tests before surgery may take place in another building. If the letter lacks a full address, ask for it.
Can a patient from abroad be treated at Bad Cannstatt hospital?
Yes: planned treatment for a patient from abroad is arranged in advance, based on medical reports. The translated reports go to the department concerned, and the hospital replies with the site, a possible date and a cost estimate. A doctor makes the final decision after a face-to-face examination; the last section of this page describes AlenMed’s part.
How AlenMed Organises Treatment at Klinikum Stuttgart
Klinikum Stuttgart is one of AlenMed’s partner hospitals. We send the translated reports to the department concerned and receive the site, the date and the cost estimate from the hospital.
Payment goes directly to the hospital. An interpreter, transfer and accommodation are arranged on request. The company office is in Munich and our partner hospitals are across Germany; the steps are explained on the page on arranging treatment in Germany.
This material is for reference only and is not an offer. The treatment plan is decided by the doctor at a face-to-face consultation.