Eighteen Korean hospitals were included in the 250 best medical institutions worldwide selected by Newsweek magazine for this year.

Asan Medical Center (AMC) was ranked highest among Korean institutions, with 29th place, and Samsung Medical Center (SMC) and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) also were included in the top 50 list.

In its latest issue, the U.S. weekly magazine published World’s Best Hospitals 2023 based on the recommendations of about 80,000 medical experts from 28 countries and its evaluation of patient satisfaction and other factors, with global market surveyor Statista.

The United States became the country with the largest number of top-250 hospitals, with 45. According to Newsweek, the U.S. hospitals also took the highest four positions, with Mayo Clinic taking the top spot, followed by Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Following America’s lead was Germany, with 25 hospitals, and Korea and Japan shared the third spot, each listing 18 hospitals on it.

Big-Five hospitals ranked high, with their places climbing from last year. AMC was the highest-ranked Korean hospital following 2022, and its place also rose from 30th to 29th. SMC ranked 40th, up from 43rd in 2022. SNUH was at 49th place, jumping six notches from 55th last year. Severance Hospital-Yonsei University was 67th or fourth highest among Korean hospitals, and the Catholic University of Korea-Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital ranked 91st, down from 87th last year, the only Big Five institution whose ranking fell.

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) was the only non-Big Five institution ranked within 100, with 93rd place, down from 89th last year. Ajou University Medical Center chased it with 119th place, Gangnam Severance Hospital (133rd), Kangbuk Samsung Hospital (140th), the Catholic University of Korea-Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital (142nd), and Korea University-Anam Hospital (144th), taking their places in the top-150 list.

Following them were Chung-Ang University Hospital (190th), Inha University Hospital (192nd), Ehwa Womans University Medical Center (202nd), KyungHee University Medical Center (229th), Konkuk University Medical Center (233rd), Daegu Catholic University Medical Center (243rd), Chungnam National University Hospital (247th). KyungHee and Chungnam university hospitals were not included in the 2022 top-250 list but entered it this year.

Newsweek also released hospital scores by country. The assessment team calculated based on peer recommendation (49 percent from home, 5 percent from abroad), patient experience (14.5 percent), medical performance index (29 percent), and whether or not they conducted patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), and gave weight to them. PROMs were introduced for the first time this year.

Based on this evaluation, the team selected 2,300 hospitals worldwide and ranked hospitals by country. Newsweek explained that there is no point in comparing hospitals between countries with these scores because each country has different sources of evaluation indicators.

In Korea, 132 institutions were selected as “excellent hospitals.” Big Five hospitals took the top five positions. AMC topped the list with 96.80 percent, followed by SMC (94.52 percent), SNUH (92.99 percent), Severance Hospital (92.77 percent), and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital (89.93 percent). AMC and SMC saw their points fall a little while those of SNUS, Severance and St. Mary’s climbed, but rankings were not changed.

Also in the top-10 list in Korea were SNUBH (89.45 percent), Ajou University (87.36 percent), Gangnam Severance (83.22 percent), Kangbuk Samsung (82.13 percent), and Yeouido St. Mary’s (81.04 percent).