MRI in Bangkok

[Lorry]

2 hours ago, Ben Zioner said:

Hmmmhh This is what my Insurance recommends, wonder why?

 

Foreign insurance?

They will recommend a hospital where the insurance can communicate in English, where professional looking medical reports are prepared and where their guarantee of payment is accepted. 

For these reasons, foreign insurances are known to have medevaced patients from China to Thailand at great cost.

 

They also like it, if the insured patient can communicate in the hospital in English. 

 

Quality of the hospital is usually an afterthought, and can often not be judged by the insurance. 

Quality of the doctor, the most important point,  is something a foreign insurance can rarely judge.

[NativeBob]

2 hours ago, Ben Zioner said:

Hmmmhh This is what my Insurance recommends, wonder why?

just like a jewelry - you can buy at posh areas of Central Dept. stores, or you can buy almost exactly same-same at Yowarat, or you can manage it yourself - not casting and setting, just "manage"

 

Same for scanners - they all very similar Phillips, Toshiba now some Chinese one. But quotes can range up to 300%. 

[Lorry]

2 minutes ago, NativeBob said:

Same for scanners - they all very similar Phillips, Toshiba now some Chinese one.

Like cars, they are all very similar,  Lada, Ferrari, now some Chinese ones. 

[josephbloggs]

51 minutes ago, NativeBob said:

just like a jewelry - you can buy at posh areas of Central Dept. stores, or you can buy almost exactly same-same at Yowarat, or you can manage it yourself - not casting and setting, just "manage"

 

Same for scanners - they all very similar Phillips, Toshiba now some Chinese one. But quotes can range up to 300%. 

 

52 minutes ago, Lorry said:

Foreign insurance?

They will recommend a hospital where the insurance can communicate in English, where professional looking medical reports are prepared and where their guarantee of payment is accepted. 

For these reasons, foreign insurances are known to have medevaced patients from China to Thailand at great cost.

 

They also like it, if the insured patient can communicate in the hospital in English. 

 

Quality of the hospital is usually an afterthought, and can often not be judged by the insurance. 

Quality of the doctor, the most important point,  is something a foreign insurance can rarely judge.

I would say definitely that is foreign insurance.

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, NativeBob said:

just like a jewelry - you can buy at posh areas of Central Dept. stores, or you can buy almost exactly same-same at Yowarat, or you can manage it yourself - not casting and setting, just "manage"

 

Same for scanners - they all very similar Phillips, Toshiba now some Chinese one. But quotes can range up to 300%. 

In this case I would agree, but not true for everything, Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

We were quoted 1m baht for the surgery at Samitivej and almost pressured in to signing up for it immediately. Vibharam (literally 5-10 minutes away AND closer to home) will end up being around 350k. Same operation. Same level of care. Actually a nicer room. Same food. No grand piano in the lobby, no Au Bon Pain, and a bit less English spoken which was not a problem for us - the doctors obviously spoke English, some of the nurses did not, but my wife is Thai and I can speak Thai.

If insurance was paying I would have chosen Samitivej just based on reputation and the "luxury" factor. But it wasn't, and my wife didn't feel comfortable with the high pressure selling and felt more confortable with the doctor's bedside manner at Vibharam, so I saved 600-700k by going to another perfectly good hospital that didn't pressure us into making life changing (and expensive) decisions on the spot. At the end of the day I would have gone wherever she felt good as she is my children's mother and that is the only important thing, money was not a deciding factor as it was a potentially life altering decision. (I am not rich, but I could have found a way).

Both my kids were born in Samitivej, my wife had a knee operation there many years ago, I paid for them all myself and was very happy. But in this case I can't see how anything would have been any better by paying for the name of a more famous hospital. Actually many of the same doctors also work in government hospitals and Sheryl recommended a very good one but there would have been a wait and we didn't want to take the chance of waiting.

Edited September 14 by josephbloggs

[phetphet]

On 9/4/2024 at 12:35 PM, Sheryl said:

 

The imaging center will provide the scan on DVD, allowing specialist in other hospital to interpret it.

 

Anywhere in Thailand, the radiology reports are of limited use and most specialists won't eve4n read it, just call up the scan on the computer and read it themselves.

 

That said, it is risky to have a scan with contrast media outside of a hospital. A minority of people have severe, life-threatening reactions.

 

 

Made all the skin on my elbows swell up and drove me mad with itchiness. Lasted about four days.

[Ben Zioner]

1 hour ago, Lorry said:

Quality of the doctor, the most important point,  is something a foreign insurance can rarely judge.

Can u?

[Lorry]

43 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

Can u?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no

[NativeBob]

16 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

We were quoted 1m baht for the surgery at Samitivej and almost pressured in to signing up for it immediately. Vibharam (literally 5-10 minutes away AND closer to home) will end up being around 350k. Same operation

that is exactly what I meant. However we here are about MRI in Bangkok. 

 

btw, old friend of mine is super loyal to Samitivej Hospital, like there are no others.

[Ralf001]

21 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Just an update she had the surgery on Thursday. We have been very happy with the surgeons and the care at Vibharam. She is obviously still there and recovering but so far so good.

About an hour ago we had news back from the lab that it is benign, just a pretty large tumour which would have had to be removed anyway (around 10cm). After the CT scan we were told that it is 99% cancer.  Samitivej scared the pants of her - especially with their pressure - but Vibharam was more measured, but even so they said it is almost certainly cancer. So to hear today that it is benign a fantastic thing especially as my wife isn't old and we have two kids.

But hooray for Vibharam so far.

 

10cm is huge ! glad to hear it was benign.

 

Mine was 8cm and malignant, removed before it spread.

[CanNot]

On 9/3/2024 at 2:40 PM, Sheryl said:

That place is fine and many use it.

HOWEVER it is inadvisable to get MRI or CT with contrast outside of a hospital setting. For a mass  contrast media is often needed, and from the price quoted this is what was planned. 

 

 

I sssume this was found on abdominal ultrasound which many Thai checkup packages include despite not being recommended for general screening by any public health authority.  These frequently pick up liver and kidney cysts of no real  significance .

 

Can you post here the exact ultrasound finding?  In particular the size and appearance of the mass.

True words here. Got a severe allergic reaction to the CT contrast, which I didn't know I have as it was my first CT scan. 

 

Luckly it was in a hospital and I got the appropriate care and emergency medications. 

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, Ralf001 said:

 

10cm is huge ! glad to hear it was benign.

 

Mine was 8cm and malignant, removed before it spread.

Glad to hear that too, cheers.

[josephbloggs]

On 9/14/2024 at 4:34 PM, josephbloggs said:

Just an update she had the surgery on Thursday. We have been very happy with the surgeons and the care at Vibharam. She is obviously still there and recovering but so far so good.

About an hour ago we had news back from the lab that it is benign, just a pretty large tumour which would have had to be removed anyway (around 10cm). After the CT scan we were told that it is 99% cancer.  Samitivej scared the pants of her - especially with their pressure - but Vibharam was more measured, but even so they said it is almost certainly cancer. So to hear today that it is benign a fantastic thing especially as my wife isn't old and we have two kids.

But hooray for Vibharam so far.

Just to conclude if anyone is interested, my wife got released from Vibharam today - just four days from the kidney removal surgery. The doctor said he was impressed with her speed of recovery and it was safe for her to go home.

Total bill: 231,860 baht. We were initially given an estimate from them of 350k so that is a bonus, and fair play to them for only charging the real costs and not just giving us a bill for 350k (which we would have paid).  Really good care, not a single criticism of anything at Vibharam, I was pleasantly surprised.

I think this thread can be closed now or just left to die. 

Edited September 16 by josephbloggs

[Ralf001]

6 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Just to conclude if anyone is interested, my wife got released from Vibharam today - just four days from the kidney removal surgery. The doctor said he was impressed with her speed of recovery and it was safe for her to go home.

 

4 days is quick.

I was told 7 to 10 days recovery.

Day 5 I was doin ok so doc to let me out on day 6, I did not want to take any more time off work !

[Sheryl]

Glad to hear it.

 

Did they remove entire kidney or just the tumor?

[josephbloggs]

Just now, Sheryl said:

Glad to hear it.

 

Did they remove entire kidney or just the tumor?

The entire kidney.