Bumrungrad Hospital

I believe everyone one here has a valid point regarding the level of service and care at Bumrungrad. The hospital is accredited and has the resources to purchase the latest medical aides, machines on the planet - bar none. I grew up in Palo Alto and my parents both worked for Stanford Hospital. I was surrounded by the hospital atmosphere all my life.

Just because Bumrungrad has the latest medical gadgets does not mean that their procedures are as thorough as in the west. I believe the doctors work as "independent contractors"; meaning they are not employees of the hospital. This also means that they DO want to sell their services to you. Likewise, most doctors in the west also SELL their services, especially in the field of voluntary plastic surgery.

Like any country in the world the quality of care you get varies from hospital to hospital and between doctors. Thousands of people die in American and European hospitals because of malpractice. The question is how many people die or are irreparably injured after a procedure in a hospital like Bumrungrad? I don't think anyone will release that type of information.

Nonetheless, Bumrungrad's reputation around the world is nothing but astounding. I met American and European executives and their families who work somewhere else in Asia and Middle East and they travel to Bumrungrad for medical care. That says alot.

My wife and I have had major plastic surgery done in Bumrungrad. The results have been exceptional. My wife was already beautiful, but she wanted to tighten up her skin(face lift) and have a nose job as well as forehead lift and eye lift.

I have had a chin job, and liposuction around the tummy.

We are not unattractive people. People told us we already looked younger than our 45 years of age, but that's because we take care of ourselves and try to lead a low stress lifestyle. We flew to Bumrungrad for these procedures because wanted to look the same for another 10-15 years.

Our surgeon was Dr. Tongtip. She is eminently qualified. We redundantly tracked down her credentials here in the US and found her perfect. If you meet her, you will find she is as gracious and wellspoken a surgeon as you will meet anywhere on this blue planet. She is also honest. Besides safety, communication is the MOST important element in these types of procedures. I do not know her outside of our procedures in the hospital so this is strictly a doctor/client relationship.

That's all I can think of.

Good luck,

Dan

My friend and I both had plastic surgery at Bumrungrad Hospital in 2007 and were extremely satisfied with the results, price and service from doctors and staff. Our advice to anyone contemplating surgery in Bangkok (as with anywhere) is to research your doctor and the procedure thoroughly (as we did). Level of service, simplicity of payment and punctuality far exceeded the equivalent in Australia.

Through our experience we can only recommend this hospital as highly as possible. Our only suggestion would be to investigate your options in your own country first so that you fully understand what you are considering. The language barrier can sometimes be challenging and you need to ask the right questions and be satisifed with the answers.

We would have no hesitation in re-visiting Bumrungrad Hospital again and, although we did initially book through a broker would be quite confident in dealing with the hospital/doctor direct.

i have just come back from bumrungrad after my breast augumentation and this is how it is.
my dr was not very helpful in the consultation he did not even recomend any size it was up to me entirely i just had to choose an implant out of 2 massive trays all he said was that 2 big was not beautiful. i was lucky i went for a consultation in australia first to suss out the size, texture and everything first so i knew what i wanted exactly. after the op he came to see me and took the bandages off i was surprised that the insision was not in the breast crease (2 cm above on my breast) a week later i went to the follow up and asked him. he said because of the size of the implant 250cc was very big for my frame so the insision had to be higher. i was so upset that i was not told this wuld happen otherwie i would have not gone with that size or insion site because now i have unsightly scars and there is no hope of them being natural looking at all. also i was not informed that textured implants were more expensive so i had to go with smooth and i asumed he would use high profiles not moderate, because of my small frame and the aus dr said that is all he would use but he did not.

over all i think there was just no communication whatsoever i had to ask all the questions no informtion was given to me except for aftercare.

my advice is to come very prepared know exactly what you want.

I found my experience at Bumrungrad Hospital to far exceed any expecations that I may have had prior to actually visiting the property. The entire staff, from surgeon to x-ray technician, displayed absolute and world class expertise in their professions. I realize that, being an American, seeking medical attention outside of the US may be daunting. Bumrungrad would definately compete with some of the finest hospitals in the US as would the medical professionals that staff the hospital.

My medical costs at Bumrungrad were close to 20% of what they would have been had I had the same procedures performed in the US. I can't even imagine what they costs would have been if I were in Europe.

I recommend Bumrungrad to all my friends and associates. One note, however, is that you can make all arrangements directly through Bumrungrad Hospital and their website, Bumrungrad.com. I initially used an international office out of Sydney, Australia, called All About Beauty as a booking agent. Huge Mistake. All About Beauty was really only all about money. In the end, I dealt directly with Bumrungrad and everything went smooth as silk.

You'll be happy that you dealt with Bumrungrad.

Be Well.

I would not have any surgery any medical care in Bumrungrad Hospital though we have been living in Thailand as ex pats.
If you like to get something it is better to obtain it close to your home. Please check this hospital reputation on the internet before you decide.

I have not been to Bumrungrad Hospital, but have had plastic surgery twice in Thailand, with wonderful results. My best advice to anyone is to thoroughly research your Doctor, his qualifications, where he studied, how long he has practiced for etc. My surgeon Dr Pichet is amazing and has studied in the US as well as Thailand. He has a great reputation, is a caring gentle man who goes out of his way to educate you on your procedure and make sure you are making informed decisions. Nothing is too much trouble for him and he is very patient when I asked a million questions.

I have had two breast jobs, with him and both were awesome. I have sent 4 of my girlfriends over to him and they all are extremely happy. He is also famous for sex reasignment operations, so you can imagine a boob job is a walk in the park compared to some of the operations he does. The hospital I stayed in was brand new and first class, it actually made the hospitals in Australia look shabby.

There are some bad doctors in Thailand and I personally know two people who have had horrific surgery, but they did not research their surgeons and just went for the lowest price. Spend the time researching as you will have to live with the results.

To whoever is planning on going to Thailand for cosmedic surgery at Bumrungrad Hospital.I would like to inform you as to how it really is at this hospital.Myself and my fiancee went to thailand on Jan 13th 2008 so she could get a breast augmentation done.Now I will tell you exactly what happend-First off we went in on the 14th of Jan 2008 for a consultation with a Dr Termsak Navykarn(plastic surgeon)This consultation was about as informing to us as talking to a tree-My fiancee stipulated by email before this consultation -that she wanted saline ander muscle implants which they said they would do--Now as soon as this consultation with the dr started he tried pushing for an under breast implant with silicon filling.We tried asking him questions such as how many saline under muscle implants proceedures he had preformed and his answer was(oh many)-asked if he had any post op complications with breast implants -his answer was (smiling-I dont know-most of them are foriegners and they dont come back)-My fiancee has one breast a bit smaller than the other one and we asked him if during the surgery if he could even them as to size because a saline implant is filled by injection into the implant sac- and one side can be filled a little more to balance size-his answer was (dont worry about things like that-if one is bigger than the other what does it matter---All this time still pushing for my fiancee to get silicon instead.We were totaly unsatisfied with his answers to any of our questions and we got the distinct feeling that this was a hospital that is a surgical meat market and they really don`t give a dam about thier patients as long as you got the money to pay.He never once even asked to see her breasts himself and had an assistant look at them--My fiancee asked him about the difference in size and he started to say they were ok and I asked him how he knows because he had never even looked at them himself.We also asked what brand of implants he used for breast augmentation and he did not even know the brand he used. We also asked him about warranty of mentor implant sacs and he said --I don;t know about any warrenty(which if you look up mentor implants on the internet it tells you about the warrenty.Anyway we asked him if she would have surgery the next day as the email they sent us said ,and he told us it would the following Monday at the nearest(here we are sitting in Bangkok with flight expenses -hotel rooms already paid for and cant stay longer due to the fact we have a four year old child at home with a baby sitter and cant just say -oh well we can stay here as long as we want)The miss representation by this hospital is at best -beyond poor so if you want to pour you`re hard earned money down a toilet then book a surgery at Bumrungrad Hospital-Ps-after the consultation as we were leaving they tried to make me pay for the consultation which they say is free on thier web site-so now when we go through immigration here- maybe they will stop us because we refused to pay this.

Revision 7 May 07. An acquintance of mine mentioned that he had read this review and was curious about my recommendations. Indeed, I have learned and heard more stories that I need to revise my review.

Several friends have told me of significant problems with mis-diagnosis and mis-treatment of conditions at Bumrungrad. The common thread seems to be that for complex or fairly uncommon conditions, the doctors commonly don't know how to handle the situation. For example, I have a friend who was being given treatment at Bumrungrad that was not helping his condition. On a hapenstance consultation with another doctor, he discovered that the treatment prescribed at Bumrungrad was actually worsening his condition. A new treatment is now helping him feel better.

The causes for this are probably complex, but I think there are two factors that are cause for concern. First, Thailand does not have any malpractice lawsuits. Although this may help keep the health care cheaper, it also means that there is no accountability for bad doctors. Also, I have heard second hand from other doctors that the culture of 'saving face' and status means that the hospitals will not keep records or speak about mistakes made by a doctor. You as the patient will not have any way to access a history of the doctors performance, and the hospital is loath to even discuss problems with the doctors. Finally, doctors are very hesitant to admit that they don't have a solution because to do so would be to loose face, so they will prescribe some treatment just to appear as if they are doing something.

This review is of course, only my opinion, but I think the bottom line is this. If you have routine conditions like food poisoning or bronchitis, you should be able to get the right treatment. But if you are dealing with a complex situation, you might get a second opinion at an unrelated hospital.

The original review is included below for reference.
Kelsey



A good thing to know when spending any significant period of time in a foreign country is where to get medical assistance. Bangkok hosts quite a few international quality hospitals, and the one considered to be the best in all of South East Asias is Bumrungrad.

Bumrungrad is located in between Soi's 1 and 3 on Sukhumvit Road, in the heart of Bangkok. The hospital does offer ambulance service, but in an emergency, you may be better off catching the nearest cab - the ambulance doesn't neccessarily get anywhere any faster than the cabs do. The hospital complex includes outpatient and inpatient centers, a long term stay facility, an emergency/trauma center and a fitness and nutrion center.

The hospital is a common destination for people seeking elective surgery, especially plastic surgery. The hospital is often crowded with Middle Easterners in town specifically to use the hospital. Travelers with less than urgent medical needs can often take a vacation in Bangkok and then get the surgery for the same cost as getting it done at home in a western country.

The rooms vary from nice to luxurious. Birthing suites in particular can be cheaper than some hotel rooms in the area, and feature large two room, two bath suites with televisions and restaurant food delivery. Regular regular can choose from private hospital rooms or multi room suites as well. A mother giving birth by C section can expect to be in the hospital for as long as she likes, and expect to get out for less than $1000 US, including the delivery.

Unlike western hospitals, Bumrungrad usually schedules appointments directly with specialists, rather than directing you to a generalist first. A patient with food poisoning should not be surprised to find themselves in the Digestive Disease center conlulsting a Gatroenterolgist. I myself have had a pnumonia diagnosis delivered by a Pulminary specialist trained at Harvard Medical School, and, including four medications, the total bill was $35 USD.

So, if you are considering Medical tourism, or find yourself in Bangkok in need of a doctor, you should really consider Bumrungrad Hospital. Other hospitals in the area, Including BNH and the like probably offer nearly equivalent level of service but Bumrungrad is renowned as the best in the region.