Any Experiances With St. Louis Hospital In Sathorn, Bangkok ?

[BKKdreaming]

Has anyone done the full check-up at St. Louis Hospital in Sathorn ?

The price is half of the big names , still exspensive if you are on Thai wages !

but at St. Louis Hospital you are not paying for all the advertising and fancy stuff

any reports from St. Louis Hospital good or bad ?

thanks

dave

[flightcrew1]

If you do a quick search on here you will see many positive things about St. Louis Hospital, including some from me.

In answer to your specific question, I did the full check up a couple of months ago and was quite satisfied with the way they handled everything. I also like you have asked several times why is the cost considerably cheaper than say BNH or Bangkok Hospital and was told that since they are a Catholic Hospital it's not all about the profit.

Most of the patients from what I see are middle to upper class Thai.

[popshirt]

The health check up is efficient and about half the price of BNH or Bumrungrad. You get a little booklet afterwards with all your test results to take home. I showed it to my doctor in the US and it saved me some money there because the tests were recent. His comment however was that in the blood panel they should have routinely tested for HIV and syphilis but they did not. Also he suggested I should have opted for the stress test (available at higher cost).

Medical services there are a bit hit and miss. I live just across the road from St. Louis so go there regularly. Mostly I have had good experiences.

But I did experience one serious misdiagnosis and treatment that could have put me at risk. A cardiologist there diagnosed me with DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and put me on blood thinner and other meds., when in actuality what I had was an infection and cellulitis and only needed a course of antibiotics. The correct diagnosis was given to me in about 1 minute by my general practitioner in California.

Also, English is not widely spoken, certainly not well understood, as another poster says the clientele are mostly upper middle class Thai/Chinese.

Overall I would give Bummers and BNH an "A" and St. Louis no more than a "B".

[BKKdreaming]

Hi

thanks for the replies , yes I searched but how things change here I was wondering about current ideas,

the lack of English would be my major problem ,

plus they have not got back to me after 3 emails . but that seems to always be a problem in LOS,

All the hospitals here seem to be quick to diagnosis and hand out drugs ,

I things the drug makers have done too good of a job that giving a drug is "magic" and can solcve everything

I may have to take the BTS over to St Loius today and check it out

thanks for your experiances

keep them coming

Dave

Edited November 12, 2008 by BKKdreaming

[BKKdreaming]

Hi All

well I did the full check-up #5 , a little over 8000 baht ,

it seemed like everything I had at my other full check-ups, but without the glitz of Burmi

It took about 3 hours total on a Saturday morning,

the Hospital was pretty bare bones , but clean and nice ,

I think I was the only falang there , english was spoken enough to get the job done and everyone was helpful.

I will go back again next year

Dave

[Maizefarmer]

It is indeed a not-for profit hospital - run by nuns and brothers of one of the Catholic religous orders: so the hospital fees themselves are substantialy cheaper than, say, Bangkok Nursing Home, or Bumrungrad - BUT BUT, note guys: this "charity" does not extend to the doctors fees, which although may be cheaper to some extent than doctors fees at the other above hospitals are still very commercial - as the doctors are not hospital staff.

As is the practise with most Bkk private hospitals, doctors enter in contracts with hospitals for their services and are paid by hospitals on the basis of the business they do at the hospital (i.e. the patients they treat and the income they generate for the hospital doing so). The hospital then invoices the patient accordingly.

The above I know for certain is the case (and the practise between most doctors and private hospitals in Thailand - not state hospitals of course), what I don;t know in respect of St/L is, how and if the hospital marks up the doctors fee to get a slice of the cake, or if, in the true sense of charity, they pass doctors fees to patients at the same rate they are charged by the doctor. The latter may well be the case.

Is St/L any worse/better than the other big name private hospitals? Nope - I don't think it is: they are all much the same in terms of the quality of the actual medical care in my opinion. Flash rooms, Western menu's ... well, there is a big diff between many of the private hospitals, as most long term ex-pats know.

It's a very popular hospital with professional middle class Thai's.

[MiG16]

family and friends have used the hospital for various services.

very good.

also moving to health forum