Does Harvard have its own hospital on campus?

Harvard itself does not own or operate a hospital directly on its main undergraduate campus. However, Harvard is deeply affiliated with several world-renowned hospitals in the Boston area, particularly through Harvard Medical School (HMS). Examples of these are Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. These institutions are sometimes called Harvard teaching hospitals because Harvard medical students do much of their clinical training there.

For undergraduate students on Harvard's main campus in Cambridge, healthcare is provided through Harvard University Health Services (HUHS), which is located in the Smith Campus Center. HUHS is a comprehensive health center that functions much like a regular student health center at other universities, rather than a hospital. Undergrads can visit HUHS for primary care, mental health, urgent care (during business hours), sports medicine, and other basic health needs. Anything more serious that goes beyond these services (like surgery, major injury, or specialized treatment) usually results in a referral to one of the major Boston hospitals, which are part of Harvard’s broader medical ecosystem.

As a pre-med student, your exposure to those large teaching hospitals comes later—usually as a med student, not as an undergrad. Undergraduates interested in healthcare or medicine often pursue shadowing, volunteering, or research at these hospitals, but you don’t take classes there.

A former Harvard student might describe day-to-day undergraduate healthcare as convenient and accessible. For example, if you get the flu or need a consultation for allergies, you'd book an appointment at HUHS and walk there from your dorm. Prescriptions could often be picked up at the on-campus pharmacy. But if you ever needed more specialized care—let's say you developed a rare side effect from a medication—HUHS would refer you to one of the large Boston hospitals, leveraging Harvard’s close relationships with those institutions.

So in short: No single 'Harvard hospital' exists, but undergrads have their own health center, and the university’s medical school works with many nearby top hospitals for research, teaching, and advanced care.