Mixing pleasure and health for low-cost, high-quality care. With spending on health care in America topping $2 trillion, Americans are looking at overseas care as an alternative even for complex procedures like heart surgery

A drug-dispensing robot is filling many of the prescriptions at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Makers say the machine is more reliable than humans.

This doesn't look like a hospital," says Ruben Toral, showing me around. "It feels more like a hotel or an upscale mall." After studying the gleaming lobby of Bumrungrad International for a minute or two, I'm inclined to agree.

Establishing a model of the world’s first truly global hospital, Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital has digitized many aspects of hospital work, saving lives, money and enhancing its ability to process health information.

Sherrie Wilcox returned from her recent trip overseas with a few souvenirs: a pretty scarf, a pink bracelet, a 4-inch abdominal incision.

Who says hospitalization needs to be stressful? In Asia, where there is a strong tradition of personal care and hospitality, medieval menus are fast being put away and there is there is an aroma of wellness in the air!

Ravi Aron tells the following true story, with the central figure’s identity made vague to protect his privacy. A business consultant retired early, then found he needed heart surgery, a triple bypass. The bill for the procedure plus treatment for some co-morbidities was projected to be six figures. The man was too young for Medicare and his private insurance was going to leave him with a huge co-pay. Then a physician he had known for a long time told him of an alternative, a hospital in Thailand, Bumrungrad International.

It's been called the Mecca of medical tourism. For the past 10 years, Thailand's Bumrungrad International Hospital has been wooing patients from Boston to Bahrain with a combination of lower-cost, state-of-the-art medical care along with service worthy of a five-star hotel.
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