Bumrungrad International

If you're thinking that these are pictures of a famous 5-Star hotel located in a famous tourist destination then you are partly correct.

Bumrungrad (Thai meaning "care for the people") International is an internationally accredited, multi-specialty hospital located in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. It's the largest private hospital in Asia and well known for it's medical tourism. Millions of patients come every year to have their medical procedures because health care is cheaper in Thailand and the hospital is fully staffed (700+ nurses and 945 doctors, covering 55 sub-specialties) and has all the latest medical equipment and facilities. Red Cross gives Bumrungrad its top classification of "A" – defined as "a tertiary care center which should be able to provide quality care in all medical specialties including invasive cardiology, cardiac and neurosurgery."

And speaking of specialized doctors, Bumrungrad even has a golf doctor. Yes they have a golf course and an in-house ortophedic doctor/surgeon that not only cures golf-related injuries but help you improve your game! How cool is that.

And yes, Bumrungrad is a tourist destination/hospital that offers a shopping center, restaurants, and fully furnished private rooms. The room amenities include private bathrooms, cable TV, refrigerator, DVD players (available on request) and high-speed Internet connections. Suites also come with full kitchens as well as washing machines and dryers (available at one bedroom apartment up). The shared facilities include a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room. And did I mention maid-service?

But before you pack your bags to have a cheap cosmetic surgery and recuperate in a 5-star hotel suite you better think twice. Because Bumrungrad has some secrets behind it. Just like the death of 23 year old Josh Goldberg who died because of malpractice but Bumrungrad is protected from medical suits since it is a huge money earning company that brings a lot of income to the Thai government so it's natural to protect this gold mine from being exposed.

Bumrungrad has also been speculated to harvest organs from live patients that is why it's quite easy to get organ "donors" from Bumrungrad. But all of these are not proven because they are all perfectly covered up as said by bumrungraddeath.com.

But aside from these controversies Bumrungrad International is still such a wonderful place (for the filthy rich anyway). So if you plan on staying at Bumrungrad or any hospital for that matter please take note of these reminders/tips:

• Always have a watcher with you at all times. You don't want to be a victim of organ theft or dying due to malpractice.
• Always ask for explanations for all procedures and treatment, especially medications. Doctors might be blinded by greed and over treat a patient to get more pay from insurance.
• Take note of all expenses and know the "hidden charges" are carefully tagged as miscellaneous fees and don't hesitate to ask what these fees are for even before checking in to any hospital.
• Check the accreditation of the doctors and staff.
• Refer to friends and relatives for feedback on their hospital stays so that you will be aware of what to expect.

Let us remember that health care is now a business (sadly). So let us not be victims of large greedy health corporations and let us protect our rights by always being informed.

***
Sources:
Bumrungrad International
Bumrungrad Death

Awesome Town

I was just surfing the net as usual (blog hoping) when I bumped into "Awesome Town". I've heard that it's a TV series for Fox Network but I really can't relate because I don't get Fox here in our cable subscription.

These guys are weird to the point of being stupid but they have a sense of appeal don't you think as they make you laugh your head off. Hmm... maybe I need more sleep though words are just flying out my head and I can't seem to think straight. Kind of like the guys from Awesome Town huh? Lol.

Are you a Unicorn? Yes! Hahaha!

Too Tired to Blog

I don't know why I suddenly feel so tired today. I was planning to do my daily routine this evening, blog and drop Entrecards but I am just too darn tired to stay awake. I guess that my body is already feeling the recoil of sleep deficit. I have to pay up for my lost hours of sleep.

It's really amazing how I manage to sleep late at night during days with out classes and be flat on bed snoring during school days hehehe. But maybe it is just more relaxing to sleep when you know that you have a lot of boring school stuff to do.

Speaking of school stuff it reminds me of my brother's high school, Holy Cross High School. I have never studied there and I am glad that I did not because their rules and policy are so insanely stupid. Why do they need to have the parents retrieve the student's report card? Am I not enough to satisfy the role as guardian? Like my parents have no time because they have to work for our living. Besides my brother already graduated so there is no need to talk to the parents about my brother's performance in school.

I just wonder what the basis of their rules are. Just for the sake of having rules? Well I have 2 words for that: BS! Sorry for my French.

Being a Pharmacy Technician

I'm still young and I still have many opportunities waiting for me. I still don't have a clear picture of who I will be in the future but I am definite that I will be in the health care industry someday. Upon checking out many health-related careers I had my eye on being a pharmacy technician.

So what are the job responsibilities of a pharmacy tech? Quite simple really, pharmacy technicians assist licensed pharmacists. In the hospital setting, after the patient's meds are checked by the licensed pharmacist, the pharmacy tech delivers it to the patient. While in the pharmacy, technicians prepare the prescription after checking its accuracy, which could include counting pills, or weighing, measuring, or mixing the medication. There's no need to worry about making mistakes here because the pharmacist will always double check your prepared medications before it is dispensed.

Being a pharmacy tech requires no formal education too! One could just have an on the job training how cool is that? All you need in being a pharmacy tech is being a hard worker, organized, and alert. You must also be careful with your drug preparations as wrong dosages could seriously harm a patient.

So the most important part, the pharmacy technician salary. In 2002, the median hourly pharmacy tech salaries were $10.70. But wages actually vary and other factors that affect wages include the job environment, certification, union membership, and shift.

So being a pharmacy technician is not bad! In fact it's a very interesting career choice! So if you want more information about how to be a pharmacy technician and where you might want to study why don't you visit this very informative site: medical-career-training.com.

Harsh CI Love

As a student nurse I have encountered so many kinds of clinical instructors (CI's). There are CI's who are very friendly, there are CI's who you admire so much for their intelligence and skills, but the CI's that you might want to get away from are the "terror" CI's with matching tiger-looks hahaha!

Who are these "terror" CI's? They are the ones who will not hesitate to shout at you in public, fail you, and even throw heavy steel patient charts (you must evade to avoid serious injury hehehe). But I understand why CI's may sometimes be strict and uptight. This is because their hard-earned professional license is on the line. So if ever students become lax in the hospital student nurses might do more harm than care to patients. and who would suffer the consequences? Not the students but the CI's because what will you take away from student nurses they don't even have any license yet. So if you hate your CI go kill a patient, joke. ^_^

But if CI's are not strict with their students the clear line that marks authority is broken and student nurses won't show respect and won't follow the instructions of CI's. Plus if our CI's don't care about us then they would just leave us making a lot of mistakes. If CI's don't inform us of our mistakes then we would never learn.

But at the end of the duty or class CI's are more friendly because they don't have to be the authority after class hours, they are now our friends. I'm really going to miss my clinical instructors especially Ma'am Asne who has always been a mother figure to us. She has always been so generous with us in terms of time and food (hehehe). I will try to be like my clinical instructors and I will make them proud me, their student nurse who gave them trouble once in a while...