Samitivej Hospital in Bangkok boasts not only a recently renovated wing shown here but a multilingual staff and the latest medical equipment.

As the Thai government pushes healthcare as a key component of economic growth, many hospitals in Bangkok have upgraded their facilities and services to accommodate an increasing number of foreign patients in search of low-cost but high-quality medical care.

Samitivej Hospital, which operates four hospitals in the Thai capital, renovated its Sukhumvit facility in 2002 to target a Japanese market as the number of Japanese patients grew. Each day, the hospital takes in an average of 240 Japanese outpatients or about 15 percent of its total outpatients.

‘‘We are the No. 1 healthcare provider for Japanese residents in Thailand. Our location in the middle of Bangkok’s ‘Little Tokyo’ and our approach of providing care and not just selling medicine or selling treatment, have been contributing factors to this,’’ explains Managing Director and CEO John Lee Koh Shun.

Lee sees great growth potential for the Samitivej Group’s three other hospitals — Srinakarin, Sriracha and BNH Hospital — to attract more Japanese patients. In fact, the group renovated its Srinakarin and Sriracha facilities in eastern Bangkok to accommodate more Japanese.

‘‘Staying in Bangkok is like staying in Tokyo. You stay in apartments. I’m sure there are Japanese families who want to live in houses and since Sriracha is the biggest Japanese town outside of Bangkok, more and more families will eventually move there,’’ Lee says.

A knowledgeable and friendly staff, complemented by world-class medical care, has strengthened the reputation of Samitivej Hospital as a top-notch facility in Asia.

Initially established as a general hospital, Srinakarin transformed itself into Thailand’s first children’s hospital, the first such facility in Southeast Asia. Currently, half of its patients are children.

While Sriracha is located close to the majority of Japanese companies on the eastern coast, BNH Hospital is near many Japanese corporate offices and walking distance from Thaniya Street, one of the premier areas in Bangkok for Japanesegeared entertainment.

Although medical care in Bangkok costs three times lower than that in Singapore, where many Japanese companies choose to send their executives for treatment and checkups, price has not been the main reason that more Japanese patients prefer to go to Bangkok.

‘‘What the Japanese are concerned with, which Samitivej possesses, is quality compared with price or value-for-money. This is extended to all three Samitivej Hospitals as well as BNH Hospital. As I compare healthcare in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong over time, our quality and value-formoney will make us second to none,’’ Lee says.

Although the Japanese are its main target group, Samitivej intends to adopt the best standards and practices from all over the world.

‘‘We compare our cleanliness to Japanese hospitals, which are world renowned for their cleanliness, while our décor is based on American hospitals, which are known for their home-like interiors. Added to our multilingual staff, we want all nations to know we can accommodate them under the highest of medical standards on all fronts,’’ Lee says.

But, Samitivej knows that state-of-the-art equipment cannot solely replace oldfashioned bedside manners. ‘‘In this day and age, more and more medical responsibilities are being shifted from doctors to machines. At Samitivej, we want to take the technological lead while maintaining and emphasizing human interaction. We want to be known as the ’human touch hospital’ because we care,’’ he adds.

www.samitivejhospitals.com