How China Works

What Is a 3A Hospital in China? A Guide to 三甲 Hospitals

China Medical Index · Reviewed and last checked 2026-09-11

If you research medical treatment in China, you will repeatedly see terms such as:

They generally refer to the same concept: a hospital classified at Level 3, Grade A within China's hospital evaluation system.

For international patients, 3A status is useful—but frequently misunderstood.

3A tells you that a hospital has reached a high formal institutional grade. It does not tell you that the hospital is the best in China, or the best hospital for your disease.

What does “3A” mean?

The Chinese term is:

三级甲等医院

Broken down:

It is commonly abbreviated as:

三甲医院

and transliterated informally as:

sanjia hospital.

English-language hospital websites may translate it as:

CMI should normalize these as Level 3 Grade A (3A) while preserving the original Chinese wording where available.

Is 3A the highest hospital grade in China?

Within the conventional hospital level-and-grade framework, Level 3 Grade A is the highest widely recognized grade.

But the grading framework should not be read as:

bad hospital → good hospital → 3A = best hospital.

The 2025 Standards for Tertiary Hospital Review evaluate tertiary hospitals across institutional responsibilities, clinical capability, quality and safety, specialty development, management and other dimensions. The standards emphasize that tertiary hospitals should focus on emergency and critical illness, difficult and complex disease, specialty services, technical innovation, training and support for lower-level institutions.1

So 3A status is best understood as a high institutional capability and review status, not a consumer ranking.

How many 3A hospitals are there in China?

At the end of 2024, China had:2

It also had:

This explains why “3A” cannot mean “top hospital in China.”

If nearly 1,900 hospitals have 3A status, the label is too broad to identify the strongest center for a particular disease.

Are all Chinese hospitals graded?

No.

This is a common factual error.

The 2024 national statistics report 9,018 ungraded hospitals.2

Therefore, it is inaccurate to say:

“Every hospital in China has an official grade.”

What does Level 3 or tertiary hospital mean?

A Level 3 hospital generally operates at the higher end of China's hospital system.

National tertiary-hospital standards emphasize roles including:

For a medical traveler with a complex diagnosis, it is therefore reasonable to start by looking at tertiary hospitals.

But do not stop there.

What 3A status tells you

A verified 3A designation is useful evidence that the hospital has met a high level of formal institutional review.

For an international patient, it can be useful when distinguishing:

What 3A status does not tell you

It does not prove that the hospital:

This distinction is central to using Chinese hospital information correctly.

3A is not the same as a national “Top 100”

China has other evaluation systems.

Fudan hospital rankings

These focus heavily on specialty reputation and are widely used to identify leading departments and national centers.

Government tertiary public-hospital performance monitoring

This evaluates public hospitals across dimensions including medical quality, operational efficiency, sustainable development and satisfaction.

Specialty-specific national designations

Some hospitals are designated as national medical centers, national regional medical centers, national clinical research centers, or hold other disease-specific roles.

These signals answer different questions.

A 3A hospital can be excellent without appearing near the top of a Fudan specialty list. A hospital can also be 3A but relatively ordinary in the specialty you need.

Related: Best Hospitals in China: How Hospital Rankings Work

Why two 3A hospitals can be very different

China's tertiary public hospitals treat very different levels of case complexity.

The National Health Commission's 2023 performance-monitoring analysis reported:

CMI measures the complexity of treated inpatient cases.

This does not mean one hospital is “29.5% better.” It means hospitals at higher referral levels tend to manage more complex case mixes.

That is one reason the 3A label alone is insufficient.

Does 3A matter for medical tourism?

Yes—as a first filter.

For serious planned treatment, international patients will often be safer starting with:

But a 3A label should then be followed by specialty-level analysis.

For example:

Cancer

Check: - disease-specific oncology program; - surgical oncology; - radiotherapy; - pathology; - molecular diagnostics; - multidisciplinary tumor board; - access to systemic therapy.

Cardiology

Check: - structural heart; - electrophysiology; - interventional cardiology; - cardiac surgery; - advanced heart failure; - annual procedure volume.

Neurosurgery

Check: - tumor type; - cerebrovascular; - skull base; - epilepsy; - spine; - functional neurosurgery.

The same “3A” label can sit over very different clinical strengths.

Does 3A mean “public hospital”?

No.

Hospital ownership and hospital grade are separate attributes.

When researching a hospital, CMI should store both:

text ownership: public / private hospital_level: 1 / 2 / 3 / ungraded hospital_grade: A / other / not verified 3A_status: verified / not verified

This prevents database errors.

Does 3A mean “teaching hospital”?

No.

Many famous 3A hospitals are university-affiliated teaching hospitals. But university affiliation is separate from hospital grade.

A name containing 附属医院 means “affiliated hospital,” generally indicating a relationship with a university or medical school.

That relationship may be relevant to teaching and research but should not substitute for 3A status or specialty evidence.

How do you verify that a hospital is really 3A?

Do not rely only on:

Prefer:

  1. provincial or municipal health-authority information;
  2. current hospital official profile;
  3. formal hospital-review announcements;
  4. authoritative government directories where available.

Because status can change, record a verification date.

CMI should display:

text 3A status: Verified Source: [official source] Last verified: YYYY-MM-DD

rather than simply placing a permanent “3A” badge on a profile.

What should a foreign patient check after confirming 3A status?

1. Specialty strength

Is the hospital actually strong in your disease?

2. Doctor or team

Which clinician treats your condition?

Related: Doctor Titles in China

3. Patient route

Can you use ordinary outpatient care, VIP care or an international medical service?

Related: Public, VIP or International?

4. Language

Is English support available for the actual consultation?

5. Price

What is the hospital-specific self-pay price?

6. Records

Can you obtain medical notes, laboratory reports, pathology, radiology reports, DICOM imaging and a discharge summary?

7. Treatment timing

Can the hospital move from first consultation to treatment within your travel window?

A practical way to use 3A status

Think of hospital selection as a funnel.

Layer 1 — Institutional capability

Is it tertiary / 3A / a credible specialist center?

Layer 2 — Specialty

Is this department nationally or regionally strong?

Layer 3 — Disease

Does the team regularly treat your exact diagnosis?

Layer 4 — Doctor

Is the clinician a good fit?

Layer 5 — International access

Can you realistically use the service?

3A answers only Layer 1.

Frequently asked questions

Is a 3A hospital the same as a tertiary hospital?

Not exactly.

All 3A hospitals are at the tertiary/Level 3 level, but not every Level 3 hospital is Grade A. China had 4,111 Level 3 hospitals in 2024, of which 1,876 were Level 3 Grade A.2

Is 3A the same as “AAA”?

“AAA hospital” appears in some English translations, but Grade 3A or Level 3 Grade A is clearer and maps more directly to 三级甲等.

Is a 3A hospital always better than a Level 2 hospital?

For complex tertiary care, a 3A hospital generally has broader institutional capability. But “better” depends on the clinical question. A specialist service at another institution may still be appropriate for a particular condition.

Are 3A hospitals more expensive?

Not necessarily in a simple way. Price depends on city, service route, doctor, treatment, insurance and whether you use ordinary, VIP or international services.

Bottom line

A 3A hospital is a useful signal of high institutional level within China's hospital system.

It should be read as:

“This is a high-level hospital that has met formal tertiary Grade A standards.”

It should not be read as:

“This is automatically one of the best hospitals in China for my disease.”

For medical travel, use the 3A label to narrow the field, then make the real decision at the specialty, disease, doctor and access level.

Related CMI guides

  1. National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, “国家卫生健康委关于印发《三级医院评审标准（2025年版）》的通知,” June 10, 2025, https://www.nhc.gov.cn/yzygj/c100068/202506/25229edc80d34694b7debf54ddef9f9f.shtml. ↩↩

  2. National Health Commission, 2024年我国卫生健康事业发展统计公报 [2024 Statistical Bulletin on China's Health Development], December 2025, https://www.nhc.gov.cn/guihuaxxs/c100133/202512/f1c3a3c617484a27a1a26a468afbaeee/files/2024%E5%B9%B4%E6%88%91%E5%9B%BD%E5%8D%AB%E7%94%9F%E5%81%A5%E5%BA%B7%E4%BA%8B%E4%B8%9A%E5%8F%91%E5%B1%95%E7%BB%9F%E8%AE%A1%E5%85%AC%E6%8A%A5-20251201161542231.pdf. ↩↩↩↩

  3. National Health Commission et al., “关于印发2023年度全国三级公立医院绩效监测分析情况的通报,” March 28, 2025, https://www.nhc.gov.cn/yzygj/c100067/202503/5afa3c26abf6461ba02bf0f3997d821e.shtml. ↩