Healthcare in Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta has good private hospitals for a city of its size, and one structural limitation worth understanding before you move: it is not a tertiary referral center. For most things, care here is excellent and quick. For the most complex cases, the answer is Guadalajara — five hours by road, or an air ambulance.

What happened to San Javier

Worth clearing up first, because it causes real confusion. Hospital San Javier Puerto Vallarta no longer trades under that name. Grupo Médico Joya bought the San Javier hospitals in Marina Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta in 2020 and rebranded them Joya Marina and Joya Riviera Nayarit. The old emergency number still works — it is the same number Joya Marina publishes today — but insurance documents, directories and older guides referring to “San Javier” mean the Joya Marina facility.

Similarly, Amerimed Puerto Vallarta appears to have gone. Its former address on Medina Ascencio is now occupied by Hospiten, and no operating Amerimed presence in the city could be confirmed. If a directory sends you to Amerimed, expect to arrive at Hospiten.

The private hospitals

Hospital	Where	Phone	Notes
Joya Marina Vallarta	Blvd. Francisco Medina Ascencio 2760, northern hotel zone	322 226 1010	24-hour emergency; the city’s principal private hospital, opened 2000 as the first third-level hospital in a Mexican resort city
Hospital CMQ City Center	Basilio Badillo 365, Zona Romántica	322 223 1919	24-hour emergency; the walkable option from Old Town
Hospital CMQ Premiere	Av. Francisco Villa 1749	322 226 6500	24-hour emergency; the group’s larger facility
Hospiten Puerto Vallarta	Blvd. Francisco Medina Ascencio 3970	322 226 2080	Part of the Spanish multinational, with an international patient program
Hospital Medassist	Manuel M. Diéguez 360, Alta Vista	322 223 0656	Smaller private hospital
Hospital Versalles	Lucerna 145, Versalles	322 224 9292	Convenient for the Versalles and Fluvial side of the city
Hospital CMQ Riviera Nayarit	Bucerías, Nayarit	329 298 0717	24-hour emergency, for the north side of the bay

CMQ has operated in Vallarta since 1982 and its three hospitals give the group the widest geographic coverage across the bay. Joya Marina describes itself as the only certified hospital in the region, though it does not name the certifying body — a distinction worth asking about directly if accreditation matters to your insurer.

One geographic note: the two largest private hospitals sit on Medina Ascencio in the northern hotel zone, which is a long way from the Zona Romántica in traffic. CMQ City Center on Basilio Badillo is the reason many Old Town residents choose it as their default.

Public healthcare

The Hospital Regional de Puerto Vallarta, run by the Jalisco health ministry, is on Noruega in Villas del Real. IMSS operates its own general hospital in the city for affiliates.

For foreign residents the usual route into the public system is IMSS voluntary cover, Modalidad 33, at 9,300 to 22,150 pesos a year depending on age, requiring a CURP rather than Mexican nationality. Note the exclusions — pre-existing malignancies, chronic degenerative disease, cardiac conditions and HIV all bar enrollment — and the age-64 cut-off for buying private Mexican insurance, both covered in healthcare in Mexico.

Serious cases and evacuation

This is the part of Vallarta healthcare that deserves thought before you need it. The nearest tertiary referral city is Guadalajara, four hours forty minutes to five hours twenty by road — which is a long time in a cardiac or trauma emergency. That is why air transfer matters here in a way it does not in Mexico City or Monterrey.

The Joya group offers both land and air ambulance transport, and several fixed-wing air ambulance operators serve Vallarta’s airport commercially. Costs are not published and vary enormously.

Two practical implications. First, check whether your insurance covers medical evacuation and to where — many international policies do, many Mexican domestic ones do not. Second, if you are managing a serious ongoing condition, factor the referral distance into the decision to live here at all; it is the single most substantive medical argument against Vallarta and in favor of Guadalajara or Mexico City.

Emergencies

Dial 911. Joya Marina’s emergency line is 322 226 1010 and CMQ City Center’s is 322 223 1919 — if you hold private cover, save your hospital’s number alongside 911, since residents with insurance usually call the hospital’s own ambulance directly. We were unable to confirm a direct number for the Cruz Roja delegation in Puerto Vallarta from an official source; 911 will dispatch them.