Yearly Health Check

[NigelKennedy]

Have been going to Bumrungrad for ten years now thinking of using Bangkok Hospital in CM. Any views

out there on this.

[NancyL]

This thread is fairly recent: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/887902-best-place-for-a-medical-checkup-in-chiang-mai/?hl=bumrungrad

[Konini]

I go to Rajavej, no complaints with the service and not very expensive if you catch a special offer - most of the hospitals have a seemingly endless supply of them

[uptheos]

I go to Rajavej, no complaints with the service and not very expensive if you catch a special offer - most of the hospitals have a seemingly endless supply of them

http://www.rajavejchiangmai.com/hospital/health-check-ups/Rajavej%20Health%20Checkup%20Programs%202014.pdf

[NancyL]

I've been pleasantly surprised to find some of the people who now work at Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai used to work at Bumrungrad. Mostly professional women who have decided it was time to leave the rat race of Bangkok and head north to settle down and raise a family.

During my recent health screening there, the radiologist doing the echocardiogram said she recognized me as a former Bumrungrad patient of hers as soon as she saw my heart on her screen. She was able to provide valuable input to the cardiologist, even though I had my records from Bumrungrad for the cardiologist to review. He said he really appreciated being able to talk with someone who had been involved in my previous stress echo test. Some things just aren't written up in the reports, you know.

[JaseTheBass]

I'm surprised any doctors would want to move here unless their area of specialty is respiratory problems.

[elektrified]

I recommend RAM and Rajavej. Sriphat has great doctors but the parking and queues are just not worth the hassle anymore.

[Dante99]

I've been pleasantly surprised to find some of the people who now work at Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai used to work at Bumrungrad. Mostly professional women who have decided it was time to leave the rat race of Bangkok and head north to settle down and raise a family.

During my recent health screening there, the radiologist doing the echocardiogram said she recognized me as a former Bumrungrad patient of hers as soon as she saw my heart on her screen. She was able to provide valuable input to the cardiologist, even though I had my records from Bumrungrad for the cardiologist to review. He said he really appreciated being able to talk with someone who had been involved in my previous stress echo test. Some things just aren't written up in the reports, you know.

Do they do stress echo tests at Bangkok Hospital in CM? Chemically induced stress? Approximate cost? Doctor's name?

[NancyL]

I've been pleasantly surprised to find some of the people who now work at Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai used to work at Bumrungrad. Mostly professional women who have decided it was time to leave the rat race of Bangkok and head north to settle down and raise a family.

During my recent health screening there, the radiologist doing the echocardiogram said she recognized me as a former Bumrungrad patient of hers as soon as she saw my heart on her screen. She was able to provide valuable input to the cardiologist, even though I had my records from Bumrungrad for the cardiologist to review. He said he really appreciated being able to talk with someone who had been involved in my previous stress echo test. Some things just aren't written up in the reports, you know.

Do they do stress echo tests at Bangkok Hospital in CM? Chemically induced stress? Approximate cost? Doctor's name?

It's a stress echo with a treadmill -- using the Bruce Protocol. Same way it was done at Bumrungrad and in Ann Arbor, Michigan before I came to Thailand. I have a heart valve problem and the "gold standard" for me is to determine how well I do on the treadmill test, with an echocardiogram before and after the treadmill portion. The cardiologist is Dr. Apichart, although there are several at Bangkok Hospital. He was a professor at CMU and practiced at Suan Dok/Sripat before he retired. I googled his name and was impressed with the papers he'd authored on blood pressure control. A few months ago, the BP meds I'd been taking for years stopped working and I realized it wasn't practical to run down to Bangkok every few weeks for appointments at Bumrungrad to monitor progress with a new medication regime. That's part of why I decided to look for a cardiologist here. Within a couple months, Dr. Apichart got my BP under control again and I'm taking less medication than I was before.

I don't know if they can do chemically induced cardiac stress testing at Bangkok Hospital, but I would expect they could if it wasn't possible to do exercise induced stress testing.

Sorry, I can't quote the cost because I had the test as part of other work on the same day and don't really remember.

P.S. This is my absolute least favorite medical test. I'd rather have a colonoscopy than this test, but Bangkok Hospital makes it OK. You change clothes in the same room as the treadmill, so no parading around in the hallway in front of other people in poor-fitting hospital clothes, like you do at Bumrungrad. The climate of the room is suitably cool for running. They have plenty of kind, nice nurses cheering you on as you run, standing behind the treadmill to give you confidence you won't kill yourself if you stumble (the treadmill is up at a high angle and you're hanging on for dear life gasping for air at the end) And, I finally clicked to the fact that I can bring my own running shorts for this test, rather than wearing hospital pants.

[anto]

I highly recommend Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai. Excellent care and response any time including weekends/holidays in emergency case.

Yes ,but only if cost is of no consequence .( insurance will cover it )

Edited April 19, 2016 by anto

[northernjohn]

but they could not do it because they had no liquid Nitrgon gas. He had to go to Ram.

I highly recommend Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai. Excellent care and response any time including weekends/holidays in emergency case.

Yes ,but only if cost is of no consequence .( insurance will cover it )

It cost my friend 600 baht to go there and have a dermatologist tell him he needed a couple of splotches removed.

But they could not do it as they didn't have the liquid gas needed to do it.

He had to go to the Ram.

[mesquite]

I've been pleasantly surprised to find some of the people who now work at Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai used to work at Bumrungrad. Mostly professional women who have decided it was time to leave the rat race of Bangkok and head north to settle down and raise a family.

During my recent health screening there, the radiologist doing the echocardiogram said she recognized me as a former Bumrungrad patient of hers as soon as she saw my heart on her screen. She was able to provide valuable input to the cardiologist, even though I had my records from Bumrungrad for the cardiologist to review. He said he really appreciated being able to talk with someone who had been involved in my previous stress echo test. Some things just aren't written up in the reports, you know.

Do they do stress echo tests at Bangkok Hospital in CM? Chemically induced stress? Approximate cost? Doctor's name?

It's a stress echo with a treadmill -- using the Bruce Protocol. Same way it was done at Bumrungrad and in Ann Arbor, Michigan before I came to Thailand. I have a heart valve problem and the "gold standard" for me is to determine how well I do on the treadmill test, with an echocardiogram before and after the treadmill portion. The cardiologist is Dr. Apichart, although there are several at Bangkok Hospital. He was a professor at CMU and practiced at Suan Dok/Sripat before he retired. I googled his name and was impressed with the papers he'd authored on blood pressure control. A few months ago, the BP meds I'd been taking for years stopped working and I realized it wasn't practical to run down to Bangkok every few weeks for appointments at Bumrungrad to monitor progress with a new medication regime. That's part of why I decided to look for a cardiologist here. Within a couple months, Dr. Apichart got my BP under control again and I'm taking less medication than I was before.

I don't know if they can do chemically induced cardiac stress testing at Bangkok Hospital, but I would expect they could if it wasn't possible to do exercise induced stress testing.

Sorry, I can't quote the cost because I had the test as part of other work on the same day and don't really remember.

P.S. This is my absolute least favorite medical test. I'd rather have a colonoscopy than this test, but Bangkok Hospital makes it OK. You change clothes in the same room as the treadmill, so no parading around in the hallway in front of other people in poor-fitting hospital clothes, like you do at Bumrungrad. The climate of the room is suitably cool for running. They have plenty of kind, nice nurses cheering you on as you run, standing behind the treadmill to give you confidence you won't kill yourself if you stumble (the treadmill is up at a high angle and you're hanging on for dear life gasping for air at the end) And, I finally clicked to the fact that I can bring my own running shorts for this test, rather than wearing hospital pants.

This is good news. I've had enough of the humiliating experience at Bumrungrad.

[NancyL]

no parading around in the hallway in front of other people in poor-fitting hospital clothes, like you do at Bumrungrad.

Wow, if only Bumrungrad would recognize one reason why they're losing customers. Here I thought it was only a "female-issue", too.

I really hated the way they let men into the female health section at Bumrungard to sit next to their wives waiting for "female tests". That was forbidden at my hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If a man needed a mammogram (they CAN get breast cancer, you know) then their tests were scheduled after hours. But, at Bumrungrad most self-respecting men don't go into the mammogram waiting area with their wives, except for the Middle Eastern men. But, their wives change into the hospital garb and then throw their black robes over their hospital garb for modesty while the rest of us have to sit around the waiting area partially exposed in the hospital wear while their husbands leer at us like we're Nana bar girls. I'd taken to bringing a big black shawl with me whenever I went to Bumrungrad for modesty.

[JaseTheBass]

Any hospital that has a McDonalds inside it cannot be taken seriously.

[anto]

Any hospital that has a McDonalds inside it cannot be taken seriously.

Well sickness is all in the mind .Live a healthy lifestyle ,and you will live long enough to be old and cranky and well past your sell by date .

[Konini]

Any hospital that has a McDonalds inside it cannot be taken seriously.

The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne comes to mind. Huge outcry at first, and I think it was justified by the massive rent they were paying into hospital funds. Not sure if they closed it down in the end though.

[elektrified]

Any hospital that has a McDonalds inside it cannot be taken seriously.

I'm fairly certain (if memory serves me correctly) that Siriraj Hospital has a Pizza Hut inside (along with several Thai junk food establishments as well). And it's a great hospital. Go figure...

[HullyGully]

Nancy,

What was the costs of the heart tests, and what tests did you have