It runs a distance of 1,395 meters, from the Place Valhubert at the pont d'Austerlitz, by the gare d'Austerlitz, rising in a gentle slope towards its end at the place d'Italie - the town hall of the arrondissement being located at their intersection.

Along the way, it serves the Jardin des Plantes and the Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière from which it derives its name.

Bordered by public and teaching establishments such as the general police station of the arrondissement, it has relatively little commercial and leisure activity excepting the shops and restaurants close to the gare d'Austerlitz.

Nowadays, more than 950 graduate students are attending courses in fields such as industrial or mechanical engineering.

In the projects for the restoration of Paris in the post-war period (the 1959 town-planning directive), it was intended that the boulevard de l'Hôpital be integrated into an expressway crossing Paris from south to north, which would have joined the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir on the right bank.