About Hospital
St. Catherine Specialty Hospital, founded in 2011, is the largest private hospital in Croatia and a Europan Center of Excellence. Using a multidisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art medical equipment and technology, it enables patients to get a complete service in one place and without waiting - from a detailed examination and top-notch diagnostics to the best therapeutic and surgical procedures, and individually prepared rehabilitation at the level of the world's leading health institutions, which sets us apart from other hospitals in Croatia and the region. Undoubtedly, this is a guarantee for the fastest and most painless return to normal life with high-quality resolution of health problems.
Located in the very heart of Zagreb, at the address Branimirova 71E and on over 4,500 m², St. Catherine provides patients with diagnostics and treatment of numerous health conditions through as many as 18 Centers of Excellence:
- LABORATORY MEDICINE
- RADIOLOGY & IMAGING
- ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY & SPORTS MEDICINE
- SPINE HEALTH
- PHYSICAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION
- INTERNAL MEDICINE
- OBESITY TREATMENT
- DENTAL MEDICINE
- EAR, NOSE AND THROAT DISEASES & HEAD AND NECK SURGERY
- DERMATOLOGY & MEDICAL COSMETOLOGY
- PLASTIC, RECONSTRUCTIVE AND AESTHETIC SURGERY
- NEUROLOGY
- WOMEN’S HEALTH
- UROLOGY
- OPHTHALMOLOGY
- INDIVIDUALIZED & PREVENTIVE MEDICINE & GENERAL MEDICAL SCREENING EXAMINATION
- MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY
- PROCTOLOGY
- ABDOMINAL SURGERY
- VASCULAR SURGERY
- ANESTESIOLOGY & PAIN MANAGEMENT
The modern and specially designed exterior and interior of the Hospital, together with the friendly medical staff, are responsible for the pleasant atmosphere during the patients' stay in the hospital premises. Every year, more than 60,000 patients from all over Croatia and abroad are treated in St. Catherine, including top athletes from all continents. As a healthcare institution, we are intensely focused on the well-being and comfort of all our patients, as well as providing superior healthcare with an individual approach and treatment tailored to their specific needs. No matter what the medical issue is, the health, safety and satisfaction of our patients are always the top priorities at our Hospital. Therefore, we do not treat patients as users of services, but as family memebers with the aim of improving the quality of their lives.
More than a hundred healthcare professionals take care of patients, including 80 specialists. Our physicians are top specialists with extensive international experience and higly specialized experts in treating complex medical conditions, who perform over 1,000 operations annually. Following the latest trends in medicine and innovative treatment methods, the employees of our Hospital readily respond to all challenges brought by medicine and science, and make them available to patients through new, creative and tailored approaches.
In addition to extremely experienced and internationally educated medical staff, the Hospital contains highly equipped specialist outpatient clinics, modern radiological diagnostics, three operating units, an orthopedics department (15 beds equipped for 24-hour intensive care), a day hospital for the needs of one-day surgery (6 beds), and a postoperative monitoring unit (4 beds), also standardized and equipped for 24-hour intensive monitoring. The Hospital uses the latest technologies and treatment procedures in cooperation with leading European and American institutions and experts, which guarantees hospital's excellence following the highest international standards of good medical practice. The operating block of the Hospital contains the most modern operating rooms in Europe and single-bed apartments for the fastest and most comfortable stay of patients. We are the first institution in the Republic of Croatia equipped with an integrated and interconnected system of operating rooms that enables real-time visualization in 4K resolution. The mentioned system also enables two-way communication with physicians anywhere in the world in real time, as well as the availability of patient data at any time.
St. Catherine Specialty Hospital is the official hospital of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Croatian Football Federation, Croatian Tennis Association, Croatian Table Tennis Association, Croatian Teakwondo Federation and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), Croatian Karate Federation, Croatian Ski Association, as well as health institution where athletes from several major Croatian sports clubs, such as HNK Hajduk, GNK Dinamo, RNK Split, NK Slaven Belupo, NK Lokomotiva, NK Rijeka, NK Istra 1921, RK Podravka, are treated. Physicans of this health institution are leaders or members of the medical teams of the Croatian Olympic Committee and a number of sports federations.
In addition, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital is an institutional partner in science with the American hospital Mayo Clinic, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the Israeli biotechnology company Bonus Biogroup, the German hospital Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin and the International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (ISABS), a scientific organization in which work five Nobel Prize Laureates participate. The hospital is also the teaching base of the medical medical schools of University of Split, University of Rijeka, University of Osijek, and Regiomed Medical school in Bavaria.
In St. Catherine Specialty Hospital, we conduct clinical and basic research, with a special emphasis on a personalized approach to the patient. Scientific research is the basis of development and advances in medicine. They are carried out with the aim of searching for new knowledge or improving already existing knowledge, while using it for the benefit of a specific or general population, and above all, for the purpose of improving health care and the quality of life of patients. An example of our clinical research was the injection of microfragmented stromal vascular fraction with mesenchymal stem cells into the knees of people with osteoarthritis, where we proved after 24 months that as many as 85% of patients achieved excellent results. This research was published in the prestigious scientific journal Genes (1), and because of the excellent research results, this method of treating osteoarthritis can be performed in our Hospital. The conferences and events we organize are ideal places for presenting such important scientific research to colleagues from all over the world, as well as for networking and establishing new collaborations in numerous fields.
By decision of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital has been named a part of the 'Scientific Center of Excellence for Personalized Health Care'.
In 2021, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital completed a multi-year evaluation of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, the School of Medicine of the University of Osijek, the Senate Josip Juraj Strossmayer of the University of Osijek, the National Health Council and the Commission for Orthopedics and Traumatology of the Croatian Ministry of Health, achieving the right to be declared 'Clinic for Orthopedics of the School of Medicine of the University of Osijek'. Thus, after almost 100 years, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital became the second Orthopedic Clinic in the City of Zagreb. The status of our Hospital is the highest level of academic and scientific accreditation that enables academic advancement of physicians. In addition to the above, St. Catherine is also an authorized institution that carries out the education of residents, namely residents of orthopedics and traumatology, and from 2023, residents of medical genetics, which positions our Hospital as a leading institution of this type.
Our achievements have attracted the attention of the whole world. St. Catherine Specialty Hospital is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and recognitions from private organizations and state bodies for high standards and excellence in work, of which we particularly highlight the "Global Healthcare Accreditation" & „Gold Seal of Approval®“, and that we are a member of "The Leading Hospitals of the World ". Becoming a member of "The Leading Hospitals of the World", St. Catherine joined the list of rare European health institutions that have been awarded this prestigious certification for the excellence in various areas of work, primarily the quality of service provision, staff expertise, etc. Since October 2017, St. Catherine Hospital is the proud holder of the prestigious "Global Healthcare Accreditation", which means that we meet high clinical standards of excellence and quality in the provision of healthcare services according to the highest international standards. In December 2022, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital has earned the most signifacant global accreditation in the field of healthcare "Gold Seal of Approval®", awarded by the world's leading accreditation institution in the field of healthcare - Joint Commission International (JCI). The Gold Seal of Approval® is a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to providing safe and effective patient care. With this, St. Catherine became the first Croatian healthcare institution accredited by the JCI and, after a multi-year accreditation process, established that it works in accordance with the most excellent global healthcare standards, both in the provision of healthcare and in the area of patient safety. Once an institution is awarded the "Gold Seal of Approval®" by JCI, it enters the short list of elite hospitals and strongly promotes its institution and home country.
Our Hospital and medical excellence are represented in Croatia and the whole world by global ambassadors: Luka Modrić, captain of the Croatia national football team and, according to many, the best midfielder of all time; Dino Rađa, the world basketball legend and celebrated Croatian athlete; Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, sports legend and one of the most famous mixes martial artists in the world, and Gari Kasparov, a chess grandmaster and, according to many, the greatest chess player of all time.
Precisely because of all of the above, St. Catherine Specialty Hospital is nowaday recognized as a European Center of Excellence. This is evidenced by numerous patients and top athletes who have been examined, diagnosed, operated on and/or rehabilitated in our Hospital over the past few years.