Top-rated facilities for hip replacement treatment in North America: A Comprehensive Rankings Report

Identifying the top-rated facilities for hip replacement treatment in North America has become an increasingly data-driven process, with major ranking bodies evaluating thousands of hospitals each year across clinical outcomes, nursing quality, patient-reported experience, and available surgical technology. For the roughly 740,000 Medicare beneficiaries who undergo primary total hip or knee replacement annually, a number projected to reach 1.2 million by 2030, selecting a high-performing center is a consequential decision. 1

How Major Ranking Bodies Evaluate Orthopedic Facilities

U.S. News and World Report analyzes data from nearly 4,500 hospitals across 15 specialties each year, ranking the top 50 orthopedic facilities based on patient outcomes, level of nursing care, patient-reported experience, and available technology such as computer-assisted orthopedic surgery. 2 The methodology incorporates data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Association, professional organizations, and medical specialists, providing a multi-dimensional view of institutional performance rather than relying on a single metric.

Newsweek separately publishes its Americas Best Hospitals for Specialized Care rankings, which evaluate clinical performance, patient outcomes, and expert input across standout specialties including ACL reconstruction, ankle surgery, hip replacement surgery, knee replacement surgery, nonsurgical orthopedic treatments, and shoulder replacement surgery. 3 These two independent assessment frameworks allow patients to cross-reference institutional reputations against different methodological lenses, reducing reliance on any single source of authority.

The Leading Institutions: U.S. Rankings at a Glance

Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City has been ranked the number one hospital for orthopedics by U.S. News and World Report for a record-breaking 16th consecutive year in the 2025-2026 assessment cycle. 4 In 2024, HSS provided care to more than 248,917 patients and performed more than 43,000 orthopedic surgeries, figures that represent increases compared to 2023. 5 Patients travel to HSS from all 50 states and more than 100 countries, often for complex conditions or challenging surgeries requiring highly specialized care.

The following table summarizes the top-ranked facilities for orthopedic and hip replacement care in the United States, based on the 2025-2026 U.S. News rankings and the Newsweek 2026 Americas Best Hospitals for Specialized Care assessment.

Surgical Technology and Procedural Innovation

The most highly ranked facilities consistently differentiate themselves through the integration of advanced surgical technology, particularly robotic-assisted systems. Cleveland Clinic's orthopedic team has pioneered hip surgery techniques now used worldwide, including broader use of minimally invasive hip surgery and improved implants designed to support a more active post-operative lifestyle. 6 At Massachusetts General Hospital, the Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Dr. Young-Min Kwon, holds fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons, and focuses specifically on minimally invasive total hip replacements and complex revision surgeries. 7

At UCSF Health, surgeons such as Dr. Jeff Barry specialize in the bikini incision modification of the direct anterior approach for minimally invasive total hip replacement, as well as complex revision joint replacement surgery. 8 At Emory University's orthopedic program in Atlanta, Dr. Ajay Premkumar serves as Chief of the Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement Division and performs over 800 hip and knee replacement surgeries annually, incorporating computer navigation and robotic surgery techniques. 9 These surgeon-level details reflect a broader institutional emphasis on fellowship-trained specialists with subspecialty expertise in adult reconstruction.

Canadian Facilities and Cross-Border Considerations

North American patients also have access to specialized hip replacement programs in Canada, though the landscape differs structurally from the U.S. model. Clinique Duval in Laval, Quebec, describes itself as the only private orthopedic clinic in Canada dedicated exclusively to hip and knee replacement, with over 15 years of experience and the use of robotic technology developed in collaboration with its surgical team. 10 Quebec remains one of the few provinces where private orthopedic surgery is legally permitted, creating a pathway for Canadian patients from other provinces to access care outside of the public queue.

Wait times within Canada's public system represent a meaningful structural consideration. In Alberta, the wait time for hip replacements has been reported to often exceed 40 weeks, well above the national average of approximately 26 weeks. 11 Montreal-based private clinics, including those utilizing the ROSA robotic system for hip and knee replacement, have emerged partly in response to this demand from patients in provinces like Alberta and British Columbia seeking reduced wait periods for elective joint replacement procedures. 12

What Patients Should Evaluate When Selecting a Facility

Beyond headline rankings, patients and their referring clinicians should examine several facility-specific data points before selecting a center for hip replacement. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have become a federally tracked quality metric in the United States, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requiring PROMs from more than half of all hip and knee replacement patients at qualifying hospitals. 13 Research presented at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons annual meeting indicates that outcome measurement after hip replacement can remain accurate and reliable even when PROMs collection processes are streamlined, a finding with implications for how patients interpret publicly reported data. 14

• Surgeon fellowship training in adult reconstruction or joint replacement subspecialties
• Annual institutional volume of hip replacement procedures
• Availability of anterior, posterior, and robotic-assisted surgical approaches
• Published patient-reported outcome data and complication rates
• Accreditation status, including Joint Commission certification for orthopedic programs
• Availability of same-day discharge or outpatient hip replacement pathways for appropriate candidates

Risks, Limitations, and Eligibility Considerations

Hip replacement remains a major surgical procedure with associated risks that candidates must weigh carefully with their physicians. Potential complications include blood clots, infection, implant loosening, dislocation, leg length discrepancy, and the need for revision surgery. Revision hip replacement is substantially more complex than primary surgery, with reported costs in the United States reaching approximately $44,000, compared with primary unilateral total hip replacement costs averaging a similar figure. 15 Facilities that publish transparent revision rates and complication data provide a more complete picture of institutional performance than ranking scores alone.

Eligibility for hip replacement typically depends on the severity of joint degeneration, functional limitations unresponsive to conservative measures such as physical therapy and pain management, and the patient's overall health status. Patients with uncontrolled cardiovascular conditions, active infections, or significant obesity may face elevated surgical risk and are commonly evaluated by multi-disciplinary pre-operative teams at major academic medical centers. Academic hospitals like Massachusetts General, Mayo Clinic, and Cleveland Clinic maintain dedicated pre-operative optimization programs that include evaluation by cardiologists, endocrinologists, and anesthesiologists for high-risk patients, a capability that distinguishes them structurally from community-level orthopedic centers. 16

Sources

1. Hospital for Special Surgery - HSS Patient Outcomes Research (news.hss.edu)
2. U.S. News and World Report - Best Hospitals Methodology (health.usnews.com)
3. Newsweek - Americas Best Hospitals for Specialized Care 2026, Orthopedic Care (rankings.newsweek.com)
4. Hospital for Special Surgery - HSS Ranked No. 1 in Orthopedics for 16th Consecutive Year (news.hss.edu)
5. Becker's Spine Review - Hospital for Special Surgery Earns 16th Consecutive Top Orthopedic Honor (beckersspine.com)
6. Cleveland Clinic - Hip Replacement Surgery (my.clevelandclinic.org)
7. Mass General Brigham - Dr. Young-Min Kwon Provider Profile (doctors.massgeneralbrigham.org)
8. UCSF Health - Dr. Jeff Barry Provider Profile (ucsfhealth.org)
9. Emory Healthcare - Dr. Ajay Premkumar Provider Profile (providers.emoryhealthcare.org)
10. Clinique Duval - Hip and Knee Surgery in Laval (cliniqueduval.com)
11. Timely Medical Alternatives - Edmonton Surgical Solutions (timelymedical.ca)
12. Hip Knee Surgical Clinic - Robotic Assisted Surgery Montreal (hipkneesurgicalclinic.ca)
13. Hospital for Special Surgery - HSS Patient Outcomes Research, PROMs Reporting (news.hss.edu)
14. Healio - Hospital for Special Surgery Named Best US Hospital for Orthopedics 2025-2026 (healio.com)
15. Medical Tourism Co - Hip Replacement Surgery in Mexico, Cost Comparison Table (medicaltourismco.com)
16. UVM Health - Hip Replacement at University of Vermont Health (uvmhealth.org)