WORCESTER—UMass Memorial Medical Center has been named one of the top hospitals in the country, ranking 61st nationwide in the newly released World’s Best Hospitals 2026 list from Newsweek and data firm Statista.
The Worcester-based academic medical center was the only hospital in the city to make the national ranking, which evaluated 420 U.S. hospitals and more than 2,500 facilities across 32 countries.
In addition to its overall ranking, UMass Memorial received the Infection Prevention Award, which recognizes U.S. hospitals that performed above the national level based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention infection measures and Leapfrog hand hygiene criteria.
According to Newsweek, the eighth annual rankings are designed to provide patients and families with “detailed, trustworthy information” when making decisions about care. Hospitals were evaluated using four data sources: recommendations from medical experts, hospital quality metrics, patient experience data and Statista’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Implementation Survey.
The 2026 methodology placed greater emphasis on hospital quality metrics, which accounted for 40 percent of the total score. Peer recommendations made up 35 percent, followed by patient experience data at 18.5 percent and patient-reported outcome measures at 6.5 percent.
More than 2,500 hospitals were evaluated worldwide this year, with 420 in the United States. Newsweek reported that the number of hospitals globally is projected to approach 216,000, citing Statista data, underscoring the scope of the evaluation.
Fourteen Massachusetts hospitals were included in the national rankings, among them Boston-based institutions such as Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Massachusetts General Hospital also placed among the top five hospitals globally, according to the release.
The global top three hospitals were Mayo Clinic, Toronto General Hospital and Cleveland Clinic.
Newsweek’s healthcare editor Alexis Kayser wrote in the accompanying report that “choosing a hospital is rarely a simple decision” and that dependable guidance can help patients pursue the best possible health outcomes.
