Actually, I don’t like Bumrungrad. A lot of people don’t, but being right on the edge of Little Arabia, they get a lot of foreign patients. With me, I had problems with their eye clinic and the outright arrogance of one eye doctor in particular. Other people I know have had other kinds of problems with them. And they are definitely not interested in complaints, only compliments. Plus Samitivej and BNH are not only better hospitals in my opinion, but also much cheaper. Bumrungrad is the most expensive you’ll pay, although it’s still quite cheap compared with what you pay in the West.
Oh, but we knew an American lady who was in Bumrungrad laid up with dengue fever and man! It was like a five-star hotel! In the elevator, there were even signs advertising the latest concoctions for the patients by their imported Italian chef.
I’ve only ever been in the hospital here one time – amazing after all these years. I mean, I even fell off a bridge upcountry in the dark one time and emerged unscathed! But I spent two days in Samitivej Hospital six years ago to have a salivary gland removed. The operation, hospital stay, everything ran me about $800, and insurance covered most of that. Bumrungrad would probably have been double that, I’m guessing.
The US Embassy and other US government entities, such as Peace Corps, use both Bumrungrad and Samitivej these days, but before Bumrungrad was built, they used Samitivej exclusively. In fact, I remember about 20 years ago when they flew in one of the staff from the US Embassy in India who had contracted hepatitis. They did not trust the hospitals in India and at that time Samitivej was THE top hospital in all of South and Southeast Asia. He was 65, so his age may have been a factor, too, but I was impressed that they would evacuate him over to here for that.
I’ve come to like BNH Hospital a lot, though. The BNH stands for Bangkok Nursing Home, and a few years ago it got a considerable upgrade into a top-notch hospital. If I need a dermatologist, I’ll still go see my usual one at Samitivej, but otherwise I go to BNH, especially since it’s close to my home.
Siam Sam
I don’t think I’d want to be in an Indian hospital either. As far as costs go, Bamrungrad was so cheap compared to what I was expecting that we didn’t look any further. My wife had thoracic surgery, 2 weeks in a (really nice) private room, 8 weeks of radiation, CTs/X rays, and all the usual tests. The bill was around $8K. When all that happened, she’d been going to a lot of local hospitals that weren’t doing so well. Bamrungrad was like checking into a Marriot; roof gardens, in-house restaurants, and just about everything else you could want.
I’ll try BNH next time I’m over that way.
Regards
Testy
Side note: I’ve had dengue fever myself. Nasty stuff. But I was too sick to leave my home. Back then, I was single and still living in the North, and everyone I knew thought I had gone out of town, so no one came by. I had to ride it out on my own. Took a couple of days, but I finally felt well enough to move. By the time I got to a doctor in Bangkok, I was well enough that I did not have to be hospitalized. Thus, the salivery-gland removal was my only hospitalization in Thailand … so far!
There is a good political cartoon here about the growth of medical tourism in Thailand. It’s by local French political cartoonist Stephff, who is very good. He placed third in a recent UN political-cartoon contest and is featured in publications throughout East and Southeast Asia. His main venue, though, is Bangkok’s The Nation English-language daily newspaper.
NOTE: The relevant cartoon is the fifth one down from the top right now, but that may change as more are added. It’s the one headed “The Growth of Medical Tourism in Thailand …” Not hard to spot.
You can see, too, what I meant about the cute nurses. And Stephff always portrays us farangs (Westerners) with big noses; that is, in fact, our stereotype here.
Choose the one that will turn you into a superhero.
It looks like you’ve already made your decision but I’ll throw my 2 cents in anyway. I’ve had both tests done and I disliked the enema far more than the treadmill. The enema itself isn’t so bad but the preparation is. My advice (assuming that the procedure is the same in Thailand as it is in the US) is to relax during the enema. That’s much more difficult than it sounds. When you’re being pumped full of barium, your natural instinct will be to clamp down as tight as you can so that nothing comes out. This it completely unnecessary. The balloon (or whatever it is that they use to seal you up) is perfectly capable of keeping the barium in. The more you can relax, the better. Have fun. 
Actually, I think I had one back in the 1980s, at a different hospital here. You’d think I’d remember more details about something like that; I’m fairly certain it was not so horrible that I erased it from my memory. But I have only a vague recollection. Didn’t seem too bad as I recall.
So I did the barium enema and the rest of the physical yesterday (Saturday). The enema was not that bad really. A little uncomfortable but no worse than that. It took longer than expected, because the laxatives had not completely emptied my colon beforehand (confirming the suspicions of some about how full of shit I am), so I had to have a regular enema first to clean out the remnants. Not my normal saturday, but I got through it.
Everything checks out okay. Overall, I’m ridiculously healthy. Except for that touch of arthritis in my shoulder that I mentioned above, all that’s wrong with me is high cholesterol and triglyceride counts. They’ve been high for at least a few years now but have not caused any bad effects on my heart or anything else yet. The doctor wants to put me on cholesterol-reducing drugs in a few months if I can’t get it down myself. He says I should avoid eating rice, noodles and bread. What the …? Staying away from bread is easy enough, but rice and noodles? This IS Thailand.