Lifecare Laboratory for a Health Check up in Pattaya ?

[bondjames007]

As anyone used Lifecare Lab located in Pattaya for a medical check-up ?

 

I am looking at a cheap option to have a basic check up,  trying to avoid costs at the  private hospitals,  costs at Lifecare Lab seem very decent and resonable.

 

If anyone has visited this lab based in Pattaya,  any good or bad reviews ?

 

Thanks

 

David

[bbko]

 

[scubascuba3]

Good for blood tests, not sure I'd use it for more serious tests, no consultation there so you are left to analyse the results

[Leaver]

I use Life Care for my blood tests.  No complaints.  They have good package deals.  In and out in 10 minutes.  They will also email you the results.  

[bondjames007]

4 hours ago, bbko said:

 

Thanks for this.  Does the report show anything that appears to be not normal,  and if so,  I guess book appointmnent with a doctor to go through the report.  What time best to get there  by ?

[Leaver]

1 minute ago, davemax49 said:

Thanks for this.  Does the report show anything that appears to be not normal,  and if so,  I guess book appointmnent with a doctor to go through the report.  What time best to get there  by ?

 

The pathologist, Khun Larwan, or similar, will put comments next to readings that are outside the normal range.  If the reading is way outside the norm, the comment will say, "see doctor" or similar.    

[bondjames007]

5 minutes ago, Leaver said:

 

The pathologist, Khun Larwan, or similar, will put comments next to readings that are outside the normal range.  If the reading is way outside the norm, the comment will say, "see doctor" or similar.    

Excellent.  Thanks.  I will go next week

[Longwood50]

Have used them for Lab Work and I have been satisfied.  I don't know about the qualifications of any Life Care staff worker  Perhaps they are an M.D. in which case it probably would be fine.  However I would verify exactly what medical credentials the person doing the exam has. 

[Asanee Yutta]

Took my parents for annual lab test.

They are ok. 

[The Hammer2021]

BPH do full tests at 50% discounts..8K for the full Monty.

[scubascuba3]

I got a test done there yesterday 200 baht vs hospital wanted 1,600 baht with all the bill padding and unnecessary nurse fees

[Swiss1960]

@davemax49 I used this lab before and was satisfied, but as mentioned above, they only test fluids / swabs, not sure about stool examination. 

 

A "check-up" in my opinion includes more things like ECG (heart) with or without exercise, X-ray (lungs), ultrasounds (liver hardening, kidney or gallbladder stones, enlarged prostate etc), which could be early indicators of problems that pure fluid / swab tests will not pick up.

 

That said... whether a full checkup is required / recommended depends on many other factors like your age, your current health status, health issues in family etc. Many hospitals offer packages that include all of above, you just need go shopping around, sometimes you find huge discounts where a package offers more and can even be cheaper than individual testing in a lab.

[bondjames007]

1 hour ago, Swiss1960 said:

@davemax49 I used this lab before and was satisfied, but as mentioned above, they only test fluids / swabs, not sure about stool examination. 

 

A "check-up" in my opinion includes more things like ECG (heart) with or without exercise, X-ray (lungs), ultrasounds (liver hardening, kidney or gallbladder stones, enlarged prostate etc), which could be early indicators of problems that pure fluid / swab tests will not pick up.

 

That said... whether a full checkup is required / recommended depends on many other factors like your age, your current health status, health issues in family etc. Many hospitals offer packages that include all of above, you just need go shopping around, sometimes you find huge discounts where a package offers more and can even be cheaper than individual testing in a lab.

Thanks for this,  I went there and was also happy,  cheap,  as I only wanted a check up as have no health issues and wanted to avoid hospital fees.

[scubascuba3]

5 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

@davemax49 I used this lab before and was satisfied, but as mentioned above, they only test fluids / swabs, not sure about stool examination. 

 

A "check-up" in my opinion includes more things like ECG (heart) with or without exercise, X-ray (lungs), ultrasounds (liver hardening, kidney or gallbladder stones, enlarged prostate etc), which could be early indicators of problems that pure fluid / swab tests will not pick up.

 

That said... whether a full checkup is required / recommended depends on many other factors like your age, your current health status, health issues in family etc. Many hospitals offer packages that include all of above, you just need go shopping around, sometimes you find huge discounts where a package offers more and can even be cheaper than individual testing in a lab.

Stool examination is on the list of tests

[big dendrobenaes]

USE THE place all the time.......get good and very quick results.....

[mran66]

cheap and convenient...but at times their equipment calibration seems not be done properly, so if the test is important or health-critical, or if you get some unexpected off-limits result, consider another place for the test or at least validation in another place instead going to them for 2nd time like I did, thinking it was just bad luck, and got same off-limits result. Ended up going to Bumrungrad for special doc consultation due to alarming double result from their lab, everything normal in B tests. Suspected improper equipment calibration.

 

[scubascuba3]

19 hours ago, mran66 said:

cheap and convenient...but at times their equipment calibration seems not be done properly, so if the test is important or health-critical, or if you get some unexpected off-limits result, consider another place for the test or at least validation in another place instead going to them for 2nd time like I did, thinking it was just bad luck, and got same off-limits result. Ended up going to Bumrungrad for special doc consultation due to alarming double result from their lab, everything normal in B tests. Suspected improper equipment calibration.

 

which equipment did you have a problem with?

[bbko]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

which equipment did you have a problem with?

More importantly, which test?  Lab results can fluctuate throughout the day, so what may be abnormal one hour is normal later in the same day, glucose being one of them.

[mran66]

3 hours ago, bbko said:

More importantly, which test?  Lab results can fluctuate throughout the day, so what may be abnormal one hour is normal later in the same day, glucose being one of them.

 

The test that ended up costing about 25k to me was blood calcium. Went to my regular annual checkup there (used few times before without issues), and the package included this test; I had no idea what it is for before. Result was off, I thought maybe some temporary issue, however (after stydying what this being off would mean) went for 2nd try just for this particular test 2 or 3 wks later. Result about same.

 

As the likely root cause is either cancer or tumor in parathyroid, I went to Bumrungrad for the top doctor in this area, kind of assuming I need an operation asap to try to fix it.  I was stupid enough to make all necessary/possible tests related to this problem (contrary to just making this particular test there or some other hospital). Results next day, all clear. No problem with my calcium level, bone density normal, and parathyroid working normal. Doctor suspected lack of calibration of the lab equipment. I was of course happy to be OK, however less than happy to be about 26k baht poorer.

 

Lesson to learn: if you have some strange result, go do the validation test in a different lab, preferably in reputable hospital where lab maintenenance is hopefully better. 

 

This happened 2 or 3 yrs ago. Since I have used lifecare for checkup, and this particular value has been within normal range.

 

The scary part, though maybe less likely, is if that something critical that is off in real life, is shown to be OK because of lab error, you wont find it until later...

[scubascuba3]

10 minutes ago, mran66 said:

 

The test that ended up costing about 25k to me was blood calcium. Went to my regular annual checkup there (used few times before without issues), and the package included this test; I had no idea what it is for before. Result was off, I thought maybe some temporary issue, however (after stydying what this being off would mean) went for 2nd try just for this particular test 2 or 3 wks later. Result about same.

 

As the likely root cause is either cancer or tumor in parathyroid, I went to Bumrungrad for the top doctor in this area, kind of assuming I need an operation asap to try to fix it.  I was stupid enough to make all necessary/possible tests related to this problem (contrary to just making this particular test there or some other hospital). Results next day, all clear. No problem with my calcium level, bone density normal, and parathyroid working normal. Doctor suspected lack of calibration of the lab equipment. I was of course happy to be OK, however less than happy to be about 26k baht poorer.

 

Lesson to learn: if you have some strange result, go do the validation test in a different lab, preferably in reputable hospital where lab maintenenance is hopefully better. 

 

This happened 2 or 3 yrs ago. Since I have used lifecare for checkup, and this particular value has been within normal range.

 

The scary part, though maybe less likely, is if that something critical that is off in real life, is shown to be OK because of lab error, you wont find it until later...

For second and third opinion before spending loads of money there is MT Interlab also 3rd road and Pattaya Clinic laboratory in North Pattaya.

 

BTW sometimes these tests are done at BHP and maybe other hospitals as required

Edited October 29, 2021 by scubascuba3

[treetops]

On 10/28/2021 at 11:57 AM, mran66 said:

cheap and convenient...but at times their equipment calibration seems not be done properly, so if the test is important or health-critical, or if you get some unexpected off-limits result, consider another place for the test or at least validation in another place instead going to them for 2nd time like I did, thinking it was just bad luck, and got same off-limits result. Ended up going to Bumrungrad for special doc consultation due to alarming double result from their lab, everything normal in B tests. Suspected improper equipment calibration.

 

What did they say when you told them of the problem with their equipment?

[rickthailand]

i did many tests there and funny some blood samples are send to bangkok pattaya hospital lab for testing

[mran66]

12 hours ago, treetops said:

What did they say when you told them of the problem with their equipment?

Never did. Felt too bad to go yakyak. 

[Leaver]

On 10/27/2021 at 5:06 AM, scubascuba3 said:

I got a test done there yesterday 200 baht vs hospital wanted 1,600 baht with all the bill padding and unnecessary nurse fees

 

That's quite a mark up.  

[Leaver]

20 hours ago, mran66 said:

 

The test that ended up costing about 25k to me was blood calcium. Went to my regular annual checkup there (used few times before without issues), and the package included this test; I had no idea what it is for before. Result was off, I thought maybe some temporary issue, however (after stydying what this being off would mean) went for 2nd try just for this particular test 2 or 3 wks later. Result about same.

 

As the likely root cause is either cancer or tumor in parathyroid, I went to Bumrungrad for the top doctor in this area, kind of assuming I need an operation asap to try to fix it.  I was stupid enough to make all necessary/possible tests related to this problem (contrary to just making this particular test there or some other hospital). Results next day, all clear. No problem with my calcium level, bone density normal, and parathyroid working normal. Doctor suspected lack of calibration of the lab equipment. I was of course happy to be OK, however less than happy to be about 26k baht poorer.

 

Lesson to learn: if you have some strange result, go do the validation test in a different lab, preferably in reputable hospital where lab maintenenance is hopefully better. 

 

This happened 2 or 3 yrs ago. Since I have used lifecare for checkup, and this particular value has been within normal range.

 

The scary part, though maybe less likely, is if that something critical that is off in real life, is shown to be OK because of lab error, you wont find it until later...

 

I have medical insurance, but thankfully have never needed to claim.

 

At 25k, wouldn't insurance cover a test/s like that?  

[mran66]

2 hours ago, Leaver said:

 

I have medical insurance, but thankfully have never needed to claim.

 

At 25k, wouldn't insurance cover a test/s like that?  

 

Was just under my annual excess, so out of my pocket as no other medical costs that year. 

 

Anyway, my whole pint was just to comment lifecare in case of out-of-spec results. Have used them this year again as cheap and convenient broad test package, recognizing that may not be 100% reliable