Introduction to Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital

May 2025

​

Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital is a state-of-the-art medical facility that is part of the Israeli public healthcare system, serving over half a million residents in southern Israel, including the northern Negev, Gaza border communities, Ashdod and surrounding areas. Opened in 2017, it was the first new public hospital built in Israel in over 45 years. Assuta Ashdod was constructed as a fortified facility to withstand all types of wartime attacks. The hospital is all managed using AI systems, making it the first hospital in Israel built in the high-tech era, where medicine meets technology. Assuta Ashdod’s primary mission is to address the critical shortage of quality, accessible, and advanced public medical care in the geographic and socio-economic periphery of southern Israel.

 

Recognition and Excellence

The hospital was recently declared by the Ministry of Health as one of the three best hospitals in Israel for 2023, based on 82 quality indicators examined that year. Assuta Ashdod also ranked first in the Ministry of Health's quality of care survey for internal medicine departments for 2024.

 

Nearly 10% of our senior specialists across all departments were named among Israel's top doctors by Forbes and DUNS100 in 2024. This is a remarkable achievement for a young hospital with only one-third to one-quarter the staff size of the country’s largest hospitals.

 

As a university hospital affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Assuta Ashdod plays an important role in training the next generation of physicians in Israel.

The hospital was built with an innovative trauma center and emergency medicine center (DEM-ER).

 

Strategic importance

Located approximately 20 km from Gaza, the hospital has been designated by the Ministry of Health as an exceptionally important regional trauma center. Its strategic location enables Assuta Ashdod to provide the closest response to accidents on Highway 4 and at Israel's largest cargo port in Ashdod. The hospital brought one of the most advanced and innovative cardiac centers in the country to an area that previously lacked immediate access to emergency cardiac care.

 

Emergency Response Expertise

Throughout the ongoing war in Gaza, Assuta Ashdod has been a true lifeline for the region due to its strategic location near the northern Gaza Strip, just a 6-minute IDF evacuation flight from the combat zone. The hospital received approximately 23% of the most severely wounded patients, especially during the first five months of the war.

During the October 7th atrocities, the hospital's teams treated over 400 casualties, with a 96% success rate in saving lives.

 

Expansion Plans

In response to growing needs (the population in the Ashdod and the northern Negev area has grown by 20% in the last decade and is expected to grow by another 20% in the coming decade), the hospital is expanding:

• To double the number of hospital beds to approximately 750

• To increase outpatient clinic services

• To become a leading medical center in southern Israel by 2030

 

The expansion includes establishing new specialized centers:

• Cancer Research and Treatment Center

• Brain Center of the Neurology Institute

• Orthopedic Center

• Surgical Center

• Preventive Surgical Medicine Center for the Elderly

• Pediatric and Child Development Center

• Women’s Health and Maternity Center

• Breast Center

• National Knowledge Hub for Emerging Diseases and Epidemics

 

Commitment to Innovation

Established by the Maccabi Group (Israel's second-largest and fastest-growing HMO), Assuta Ashdod aims to raise the bar on public health services by combining quality personnel with technology and innovation.

The hospital focuses on creating new models for the Ministry of Health, including Emergency Medicine and Trauma Centers, Infectious Disease Management, Medical Innovation Center, and innovative medical resident training methods.

​