Hirslanden: A Guide to Switzerland's Largest Private Hospital Group

Hirslanden in brief

Hirslanden is Switzerland's largest private hospital group. Its key figures for 2025/26 count 16 hospitals, 2,870 partner physicians and 10,819 employees including the doctors it employs, and the group says more than 3,000 doctors work in its network across nine cantons. In 2025/26 its hospitals admitted 116,229 inpatients and recorded 750,713 outpatient consultations and 5,915 births.

The group dates from 1990, when Klinik Hirslanden in Zurich, opened in 1932, joined four clinics in Aarau, Bern, Lausanne and Zurich to form what Hirslanden calls the first private hospital group in Switzerland. In March 2026, Remgro, then its co-owner, described it as the largest private acute care hospital group in the country, servicing approximately one third of inpatients treated in Swiss private hospitals, with 1,769 inpatient beds.

Acute care is the operative word. The group's main fields are orthopaedics and sports medicine, heart medicine, obstetrics, neurology and cancer medicine, and rehabilitation after a stay is arranged with partner clinics. There is no psychiatric hospital in the group (see the section on mental health below). Its official websites are hirslanden.ch and, for patients from abroad, hirslanden.com.

All 16 Hirslanden hospitals, by city and canton

Hirslanden's list of hospitals shows 16 sites in nine cantons. The canton of Bern has four, three in the city of Bern and one in Biel; the cantons of Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva and Vaud have two each; Aargau, Basel-Landschaft, St Gallen and Zug one each. There is no Hirslanden hospital in Ticino.

Several names on older lists no longer belong to the group. According to its own history, Hirslanden sold Klinik Belair in Schaffhausen in 2019, and Swiss Medical Network now lists Belair among its hospitals. Its three practice centres in Schaffhausen, Bern and Düdingen went to Medbase in 2020. In 2025 Hirslanden decided to close Klinik Am Rosenberg in Heiden and to concentrate orthopaedics for eastern Switzerland at Klinik Stephanshorn in St Gallen; Heiden no longer appears on its list.

Beyond the hospitals, the group runs six outpatient surgery centres, 18 radiology departments, six radiotherapy institutes and a genetics laboratory. The newest outpatient centre, the Centre de Chirurgie Ambulatoire de Genève (CCAG), opened in 2026 together with the Geneva University Hospitals, with ten operating theatres and capacity for 10,000 patients a year; Hirslanden describes it as the largest outpatient surgery centre in Switzerland.

Who owns Hirslanden: Mediclinic, Remgro and MSC

Hirslanden has changed owners several times. Its company presentation of January 2020 dates the takeover by the investment firm BC Partners to 2002 and the takeover by the South African hospital group Mediclinic International to 2007. Mediclinic then owned Hirslanden for almost two decades, alongside its hospitals in southern Africa and the Middle East.

In 2023 Mediclinic itself was taken off the stock market. On 26 May 2023 the scheme of arrangement became effective under which Manta Bidco, a company owned jointly by the South African investment group Remgro and by SAS Shipping Agencies Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, acquired all of Mediclinic's shares. Trading was suspended in London, Johannesburg and Namibia that day.

In 2026 the two owners divided the group by home market. Under the agreement announced by Remgro on 31 March 2026, Investment Holding Limited (IHL), a subsidiary of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company Holding, would own 100% of Hirslanden and Remgro 100% of Mediclinic Southern Africa, while both keep their joint interests in the Middle East and in the UK group Spire Healthcare. Remgro reported the transaction closed on 1 July 2026: IHL acquired the Hirslanden Group for USD 950 million, adjusted at closing to USD 1,077 million.

Remgro names the Aponte family as the beneficial owners of more than 5% of IHL. Under the same agreement, Hirslanden retains ownership of the Hirslanden brand.

Klinik Hirslanden in Zurich and the Newsweek ranking

Klinik Hirslanden, the hospital around which the group was formed in 1990, stands on Witellikerstrasse in Zurich. For the year from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 it reported 335 beds and 14 operating theatres, 725 partner and employed doctors, 21,547 inpatients and mothers, 1,028 newborns and 81,925 outpatient consultations. It is open to patients of every insurance class.

In Newsweek's World's Best Hospitals 2026, compiled with Statista and published on 25 February 2026, Klinik Hirslanden is fifth of the 33 Swiss hospitals ranked, behind the university hospitals of Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne and Basel, and 56th in the global top 250. That makes it the highest-placed Swiss hospital that is not a university hospital. Nine more Hirslanden hospitals are in the Swiss list.

The score blends hospital quality data (40%), recommendations from doctors and hospital managers (30% national, 5% international), patient experience (18.5%) and the use of patient-reported outcome measures (6.5%). For Swiss hospitals the quality data are the Federal Office of Public Health's mortality ratios and ANQ indicators such as wound infections, falls, pressure ulcers and avoidable readmissions. Newsweek states that these general indicators do not reflect results in individual specialties, so a rank describes a hospital, not the department that would treat you. The full Swiss list is in our guide to the best hospitals in Switzerland, region by region.

How the partner-physician model works

Many of the specialists who operate and consult in Hirslanden hospitals are not hospital employees. Hirslanden calls them partner physicians: specialists who work as self-employed doctors in interdisciplinary medical competence centres, where they share expertise and cover for one another. The group counted 2,870 of them in 2025/26.

For a patient, this means you choose a doctor as much as a hospital. When you apply from abroad, Hirslanden International asks your preferred specialist for a medical opinion that includes the proposed treatment and the doctor's fee, and builds its quote on that; if the doctor cannot take the case, it suggests, where possible, another specialist from its hospitals. For outpatient treatment of patients with international insurance, invoicing and payment are arranged directly with the attending doctor, and the patient then submits the invoice to the insurer.

Swiss Medical Network, the other large private group, also works with independent doctors: it describes its network as characterised by relationships with independent doctors, with over 2,300 doctors accredited. In either group the useful questions are specific to the doctor rather than the brand.

Treatment at Hirslanden as an international patient

Patients from abroad deal with Hirslanden International, a team that works only with international patients: people with international health insurance, people living abroad who pay for their own treatment, and patients whose costs are covered by a company, organisation or embassy. Patients with Swiss health insurance use the regular Hirslanden website. Its information is published in German, English, French, Russian and Arabic.

The team handles enquiries, compiles medical files, prepares individual cost estimates, issues medical invitation letters for visas, coordinates appointments, obtains cost approval from international insurers and arranges rehabilitation stays. On request it also organises medical transport, interpreters, personal security in the hospital and taxis or limousines, and helps relatives book hotels or apartments.

Hirslanden International has offices in Zurich (Boulevard Lilienthal 2, Glattpark, +41 44 388 75 75), Geneva (Avenue de Beau-Séjour 6, +41 22 702 26 10) and Lausanne (Avenue Louis-Ruchonnet 53, +41 21 310 51 02), and takes e-mail at international@hirslanden.ch. The Geneva and Lausanne offices are at the addresses of Clinique La Colline and Clinique Cecil.

The international insurers and assistance companies Hirslanden names as partners are Allianz, AXA Assistance, Cigna, DKV, Bupa, Henner, AP Companies and International SOS. For rehabilitation it lists Clinic Bad Ragaz, Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht and Rehaklinik Dussnang. Visas, companions and the flight home are covered in our note on visas, family and the flight home.

Costs and insurance for self-paying patients

Hirslanden's international pages describe individual quotes rather than published prices. The sequence is fixed: a doctor's opinion, a written quote covering hospital and doctor, payment of the quoted amount before an outpatient or inpatient treatment, and a final invoice reconciled against that payment afterwards.

If an international insurer accepts the request for cost cover, Hirslanden sends the final invoice to the insurer. If the insurer accepts only part of it or declines, the patient pays a deposit for the uncovered amount before the procedure. Transport to and from the hospital needs separate confirmation from the insurer; otherwise the patient pays a deposit before travelling. Payment can be made by bank transfer, by a credit card debit authorised on a form, or online by credit card through SIX Payment Services.

Read any quote line by line: what the hospital charges, what the doctor charges and what is excluded. For how Swiss hospital prices are built, and why the same operation is priced differently between hospitals and insurance classes, see our note on the cost of Swiss medical treatment.

Mental health at Hirslanden, including Klinik Aarau

Hirslanden does not run a psychiatric hospital or a residential mental-health programme. Its published structure lists hospitals, outpatient surgery centres, radiology and radiotherapy, a genetics laboratory and emergency stations, and Remgro, its co-owner until July 2026, described it as an acute care hospital group.

Hirslanden Klinik Aarau is a central hospital on the canton of Aargau's hospital list. Its list of 30 specialties, from cardiology to spine surgery, does not include psychiatry. Hirslanden's doctor directory lists a psychiatrist who has worked at the hospital as a Konsiliararzt, a consultant called in by the treating doctors, since February 2023.

Hirslanden defines this consultation-liaison psychiatry as care for patients in acute hospitals, rehabilitation clinics or care homes who have a psychological or psychiatric condition alongside a physical illness, including, where necessary, referral to psychiatric services. Across the group, psychiatry and psychotherapy is listed as a specialty at Klinik Hirslanden and Klinik Im Park in Zurich, Klinik Beau-Site and Salem-Spital in Bern, Klinik St. Anna in Lucerne, Klinik Stephanshorn in St Gallen and Clinique des Grangettes in Geneva.

The pages describe the specialty and in some cases name the psychiatrists who practise there; none mentions psychiatric beds, a ward or a residential programme. Grangettes also coordinates a multidisciplinary ADHD consultation for children and adolescents, run since 2014 as a network with specialists in private practice.

Residential psychiatric care in Switzerland is the work of specialised clinics: the Federal Statistical Office counted 48 psychiatric clinics among the country's 270 hospitals in 2024. In Aarau itself, the private psychiatric clinic Klinik Schützen Rheinfelden runs an outpatient centre at the railway station, for conditions from depression and burnout to eating disorders; it is not part of Hirslanden or of our network. Residential options in our network are set out on our page on mental restoration.

Hirslanden and Swiss Medical Network compared

Switzerland's other large private hospital group is Swiss Medical Network, founded in 2002 and 77% owned by AEVIS VICTORIA, a company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It describes itself as the only Swiss private clinic group present in all the country's language regions, with 19 hospitals and clinics in 16 cantons.

Nine clinics in our network belong to Swiss Medical Network, and one, Clinique Cecil in Lausanne, to Hirslanden. The Swiss Medical Network clinics include Clinique de Genolier, which the group calls its flagship facility, Clinique de Montchoisi in Lausanne and Clinique Valmont in Glion above Montreux; the others are Valère in Sion, Générale Ste-Anne in Fribourg, Obach in Solothurn, Ars Medica in Gravesano, Bethanien in Zurich and Villa im Park in Rothrist.

The two groups meet in the same cities, which makes like-for-like quotes possible: in Geneva, Hirslanden's La Colline and Grangettes and Swiss Medical Network's Générale-Beaulieu; in Lausanne, Hirslanden's Cecil and Bois-Cerf and Swiss Medical Network's Montchoisi; in Zurich, Klinik Hirslanden and Im Park and Swiss Medical Network's Bethanien. Where each city's hospitals stand in the national ranking is set out in our guide to the best hospitals in Switzerland. If you would like the current published options for a treatment put in front of you, write to us.

About these figures

Every figure here comes from Hirslanden, its owners, Swiss Medical Network, Newsweek or a Swiss authority, read on 22 September 2026. Hirslanden's figures are for its 2025/26 year; Klinik Hirslanden's run from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Rankings change every year, and hospital lists change with sales and closures, so check the source before relying on a detail.