Introduction to Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital

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Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital is a state-of-the-art medical facility that is part of the Israeli public healthcare system, serving over 500,000 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 Since its founding closing a 30-year gap in medical innovation in Israel’s southern region.

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Established by Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s second-largest health organization, the hospital was designed from its inception to represent the future of public medicine: combining cutting-edge technology, medical innovation, academic excellence, and deeply human care.

Today, Assuta Ashdod stands as a national model for what modern public healthcare can achieve.

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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.

 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.

Many department heads serve simultaneously in senior academic leadership roles, strengthening Israel’s long-term medical capacity and national resilience.

 

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

 

Recognition and Excellence

Assuta Ashdod is Israel’s fastest-growing public hospital, on its way to becoming a national medical super-center, and ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the country within five years.

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 was Named as Israel’s Leading Hospital in Internal Medicine in 2024. Assuta Ashdod has received a 97% patient satisfaction rating.

 

33 of Assuta Ashdod physicians across all departments were ranked among Israel's Top Doctors by Forbes and DUNS100 in 2023, 2024 and 2025. 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.

In 2025, Assuta Ashdod received the Jerusalem Post National Award for:

“Its role as Israel’s Medical Iron Dome since October 7, while continuing to deliver the highest level of quality public healthcare to residents of southern Israel.”

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In 2024, at the President’s Residence, Dr. Itay Zoarets was awarded the
President of the State of Israel’s Award for Excellence in Emergency Trauma Surgery, in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to saving lives since October 7th.

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Innovation Begins with People

 Assuta Ashdod was built during Israel’s high-tech era and is often called “The Hospital of the Start-Up Nation.”

Technology, artificial intelligence systems, and advanced digital infrastructure support hospital operations — but innovation at Assuta Ashdod begins with human capital.

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The hospital invests approximately one-third of its institutional resources in training physicians, residents, interns, and medical students — nearly three times the relative investment of comparable institutions.

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Every staff member participates in programs focused on:

• Innovation and entrepreneurship

• Compassion-based care

• Psychological resilience

• Patient dignity and experience

This philosophy has generated medical solutions now adopted across Israel’s healthcare system — proving that transformative innovation often begins at the patient’s bedside.

 

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 wars 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.

Since the start of the wars, the hospital has treated over 963 IDF soldiers, achieving a 96% life-saving rate, and has provided care to thousands of civilians. 

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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.

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Building the Future of Healthcare in Southern Israel

Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital is more than a medical institution.

It is a symbol of resilience.

A center of innovation.

A promise of equality.

And a lifeline for generations to come.

 

Together, we are building the beating heart of healthcare in southern Israel.