Balgrist University Hospital

Balgrist University Hospital is a private non-profit institution managed according to economic principles.

It has three core competencies:

• As a highly specialised centre for the diagnostic assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients with serious problems affecting the musculoskeletal system.
• As the institution responsible for training doctors in the specialties of orthopaedics and spinal cord injury on behalf of the University of Zurich and for the continuing professional development of doctors and other healthcare workers in the fields of orthopaedics, spinal cord injury, rheumatology, anaesthesia, and radiology.
• As a research centre to improve the quality of future healthcare.

History of Balgrist University Hospital

Balgrist University Hospital developed from the ‘Balgrist Sanatorium’ founded in 1912. This was an institution dedicated to caring for, treating, educating, and training physically disabled children (free of charge, whenever necessary) to enable them to work.

Today, as at that time, ‘Balgrist’ is operated by the Balgrist Association constituted in 1909. But since then, the demands on the hospital have become steadily more complex. In 1945, it was designated the University of Zurich orthopaedic hospital. In 1990, the third centre for people with spinal cord injuries opened its doors at Balgrist, in a generously appointed purpose-built complex.

In order to carry out our many tasks, we are reliant on sponsors for financing. Our grateful thanks go to our benefactors for their active support.

Click on the link here to find out more about our history.

Percent for art

For the ‘percent for art’ project with artistic involvement in the new and renovated building design, Balgrist University Hospital opted for Swiss photography and entered into an agreement with the Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur.

Historical photographs taken by various Swiss photographers can be seen in the patients’ rooms and treatment rooms, while regularly changing exhibitions are to be found in the hospital’s main entrance hall. At the moment, we are showing the works of Georg Gerster.

Private view Lichtzeichnungen [light drawings]