12 Jul 2018

The flagship teaching hospital of the HKU Health System of The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, was ranked best in the region by healthcare consultant Asclepius Healthcare, which recently published the “2017 Best 50 Hospitals in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” results. 

Queen Mary Hospital scored 948.53, while the other three teaching hospitals in the HKU Health System also performed well, including Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital (5^th best with a score of 782.81), Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital (26^th place and 581.18）and The University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital (45^th place and 486.01).

In ranking the hospitals, Asclepius Healthcare analyzed data from four categories, namely, medical expertise, resources, hospital operation and academic impact, collected from comprehensive hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in nine cities and two special administrative regions in the Greater Bay Area.  

Breaking down the criteria, they assessed medical expertise based on the number of senior physicians/number of physicians, number of physicians/number of staff, annual inpatient surgeries/annual discharge, number of specialties, percentage of ICU beds and whether the hospital was a medical centre.

The assessment of resources was based on total number of physicians per hospital bed, number of nurses per hospital bed, number of staff/annual A&E attendances, and number of staff/annual discharges. Hospital operation was assessed on average length of stay (days), hospital bed occupancy rate and percentage of medical tourism. Academic impact was assessed on factors such as academic leaders/number of physicians, annual number of grant-supported research projects and total amount of grants, whether the hospital is affiliated to a medical school, and number of published SCI (Science citation index) articles and their respective journal impact factor.

Asclepius also announced the “2017 Best 100 hospitals in the Chinese Community”, in which Queen Mary Hospital ranked 3^rd with 915.59 points and Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital ranked 21^st with 791.30 points. Peking Union Medical College Hospital was ranked 1^st with 941.12 points and West China Hospital, Sichuan University was ranked 2^nd with 933.27 points. 

Professor Gabriel Leung, HKU’s Dean of Medicine, said: “It is very satisfying for all of us in the Faculty to see Queen Mary Hospital ranked the best hospital in the region and our other three affiliated teaching hospitals scoring so well. We have worked tirelessly to create a cohesive HKU Health System with high standards across all of our hospitals. This has enabled us to provide our patients with quality medical care and effectively implement our teaching and research programmes so we can train new generations of healthcare professionals in best practices, and advance medical knowledge. Hong Kong’s deepening connections with the Greater Bay Area is ushering in an era of enormous opportunity to work with more medical organizations in profound ways that will bring greater well-being and health to many people.”