Executive Health Check-Up

[RichardThailand]

Looking for some advice on which hospitals in Bangkok might be best to go to. I think this might be the one time where you don't really choose the doctor, you choose the hospital.

Would like to hear some opinions from the members of this forum and also like to hear of any experiences they may have had.

Thanks

[Sheryl]

In my experience they all do the tests fine, the difference comes in the quality of the medical review of the findings in light of the individual history which is poor in most places....and will vary with the doctor, though in most hospitals there is only 1-2 docs doing that at a time.

I have found Samitivej the most thorough. St. Louis would be a distant second (and costs less). Other hospitals I tried ranged from poor to really terrible. Some tell everyone they are fine, verbally and in the written report, even when there are clear red flags in the results. Some rattle off the results to you in an incoherent monotone and aren't very coherent in the written report either and make recommendations that make no sense given the individual history. Some use the exam as an occasion to generate unnecessary specialist referrals/ suggest unnecessary procedures.

Wherever you go, don't put too much reliance on the interpretation provided and do your own homework.

Be aware that because of different disease patterns in the Thai population some tests here use a much lower cut off for normal than is used in the West....especially for markers of liver cancer. Primary liver cancer is very rare in Westerners but relatively common in Thais.

For the same reason you need to do your own homework on what tests to get, the packages are geared to Thai population (and also in some cases to simply preying on the fact that high tech tests

often unduly impress).

[richardt1808]

I have in the past had the executive test done at Bumrungrad, which was extremely thorough, but the cost is now in the region of 20K and this year I decided to give the St Louis program a try. Although, it was much cheaper, they offered basically the same tests and the exercise stress test was, in particular, thorough and the doctor who specialises in that was very good. All the results were emailed to me a day later and I quite liked the fact that there were a series of automated comments alongside anything which was slightly out of the ordinary; so, although the doctor who gave me the verbal result basically said I was in good health, I was able to read all of the small print and I did identify several things which I did some of my own homework on and then discussed with my regular doctor on my next visit.

I'd definitely echo the comments above regarding doing your own homework as well, and definitely don't be afraid to ask questions.

cheers

[dddave]

I remember in the past there was a lot of discussion about which tests in the expensive premium packages were unnecessary and which tests sometimes omitted in the lower tier packages should be added as an option.

Assuming a 65 year old man, apparently in generally good health; which test should be mandatory?

[RichardThailand]

In my experience they all do the tests fine, the difference comes in the quality of the medical review of the findings in light of the individual history which is poor in most places....and will vary with the doctor, though in most hospitals there is only 1-2 docs doing that at a time.

I have found Samitivej the most thorough. St. Louis would be a distant second (and costs less). Other hospitals I tried ranged from poor to really terrible. Some tell everyone they are fine, verbally and in the written report, even when there are clear red flags in the results. Some rattle off the results to you in an incoherent monotone and aren't very coherent in the written report either and make recommendations that make no sense given the individual history. Some use the exam as an occasion to generate unnecessary specialist referrals/ suggest unnecessary procedures.

Wherever you go, don't put too much reliance on the interpretation provided and do your own homework.

Be aware that because of different disease patterns in the Thai population some tests here use a much lower cut off for normal than is used in the West....especially for markers of liver cancer. Primary liver cancer is very rare in Westerners but relatively common in Thais.

For the same reason you need to do your own homework on what tests to get, the packages are geared to Thai population (and also in some cases to simply preying on the fact that high tech tests

often unduly impress).

Thanks Sheryl for your informative reply. Very interesting to hear your comments and hope to see some comments from others who have had health check ups here.

[blackcab]

Primary liver cancer is very rare in Westerners but relatively common in Thais.

Apologies for going off topic, but is there a reason for this?

[Sheryl]

1. High prevalence of hepatitis (declining now that Hep B vaccine given at birth but most adults were born before that started )

2. High prevalence of liver fluke especially in the North and Northeast due to consumption of raw fish/crabs, often in som tam.

[Covertjay]

On 29/04/2016 at 0:22 PM, richardt1808 said:

I have in the past had the executive test done at Bumrungrad, which was extremely thorough, but the cost is now in the region of 20K and this year I decided to give the St Louis program a try. Although, it was much cheaper, they offered basically the same tests and the exercise stress test was, in particular, thorough and the doctor who specialises in that was very good. All the results were emailed to me a day later and I quite liked the fact that there were a series of automated comments alongside anything which was slightly out of the ordinary; so, although the doctor who gave me the verbal result basically said I was in good health, I was able to read all of the small print and I did identify several things which I did some of my own homework on and then discussed with my regular doctor on my next visit.

I'd definitely echo the comments above regarding doing your own homework as well, and definitely don't be afraid to ask questions.

cheers

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  Could you tell us how much the St Louis packages are please?  

[lopburi3]

Google translate works well on there Thai only website.  Below is there non-Thai rate list - basically 100 baht more per pkg.

[Covertjay]

7 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Google translate works well on there Thai only website.  Below is there non-Thai rate list - basically 100 baht more per pkg.

Thanks for that.