My One Week Stay at St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City

Toward the end of 2011, I started getting really sickly.  I was trying to fight it off by taking lots of rest and self-medication.  However, they weren’t enough, because I got even sicker while working in the office or even on vacation.  I decided to visit the doctor finally, so I went to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global City. In just 2 minutes upon seeing me, the kind doctor immediately suggested that I get admitted.

I wanted to get well so I decided to follow doctor’s orders and immediately started preparing myself for the hospital admission.  I called friends to see if they  could take me to the hospital.  I was just so lucky that I have friends who are willing to help whenever they can.

So one early saturday morning of December, my friends brought me to St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City.  In all honesty, despite dreading the thought of staying in the hospital for several days, I was a bit excited as I knew St. Luke’s Global City has the best hospital facilities in the country.  As what most people say, it doesn’t even look like a hospital but a hotel.  How cool is that?

Admission

The process of admission went so smoothly.  We were shown a brochure of available rooms in St. Luke’s the Fort.  There in the brochure were pictures and prices of the rooms.  I was hoping to get the deluxe room private (Php 4,000/day) but it was just too expensive for me.  I requested for a semi-regular private room (Php 2,500/day).  There were only about 20+ rooms for that in the whole St. Luke’s Global City so I had my fingers crossed while waiting for them to check if there’s an available room.

Luckily, I got the semi-regular private room (Php 2,500/day) as it saved me Php 1,000 compared to the regular private room (Php 3,500/day).  I was given an admission kit that includes a small towel, toothbrush kit, a measuring cup and set of dining utensils.

We were escorted by a good-looking man to our hospital room.  He graciously explained the facilities inside the room and wished us well as he wandered off.

Semi-Regular Private Room

The room was superb!  In my life, I think I was hospitalized about 4-5 times.  Each time was just dreadful for me.  This time around, though I felt sad that I need to stay in one room without any freedom to do things that I want outside of the hospital, it felt good that I have chosen St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City at the Fort.

You know why?  Because as I’ve experienced it, the hospital is really world-class.  The facilities are all so modern, very technology driven and since it was just a 2-year old hospital, it felt so new!

In my room, there was a huge cabinet to put my things plus there was a lockbox to put our precious stuff in.  There were also a refrigerator, a telephone, a flat-screen TV, a DVD player (we can even borrow DVDs!), digital blood pressure checker and some other medical gadgets, a bed, a fire extinguisher and couch (can also be a bed).

I also appreciate that we can see a good view of Global Bonifacio City through the window.

It definitely was a welcome happy surprise that St. Luke’s Global City is Wi-Fi-enabled hospital-wide!!!  That was the biggest driver why I wanted to stay in St. Luke’s the Fort in spite of the far distance from my house.  It was worth it, definitely worth it.

Room Rates as of year 2011

I’m not sure what St. Luke’s Medical City at the Fort offers for the year of 2012.  For 2011 though, when I was hospitalized, St. Luke’s offered 16% discount for all their room rates.

In my almost 1 week stay at the hospital, my bill was at Php40,000+.

Here’s a rundown of the room rates as of December 2011 (Rate/16% discounted rate):

• Ward – Php 1,786/ Php 1,500
• Semi-Private – Php 2,500/ Php 2,100
• Semi-Regular Private – Php 3,000/ Php 2,500
• Regular Private – Php 4,137/ Php 3,500
• De Luxe Private – Php 4,762/ Php 4,000
• De Luxe Private with PC – Php 5,119/ Php 4,300
• Executive – Php 5,952/ Php 5,000
• Executive with PC – Php 6,310/ Php 5,300
• Regular Suite – Php 11,905/ Php 10,000
• De Luxe Suite – Php 14,286/ Php 12,000
• Executive Suite – Php 17,857/ Php 15,000
• Ambassador Suite – Php 47,619/ Php 40,000
• Presidential Suite – Php 59.524/ Php 50,000

Food

Do you even think that I won’t be including a food review in my hospital experience?  Oh, no, no!  I’m a food lover and everywhere I go, food always makes me giddy.

Unfortunately, my sickness that time prevented me from eating anything solid.  So I ate only soup, soup and soup.

I had my friends try out the yummy food food served in my room.  Boy, it was gourmet!  Whoever thought that hospital food can look and taste so good?  Well, St. Luke’s definitely gave a new meaning to a full hospital experience.  I love it!

There were two types of meals we can choose from: full diet or soft diet.  At first, they didn’t give me that option and went ahead and served me full diet meals.  While it looked good, I couldn’t eat it due to my sickness.  The server noticed and suggested to serve me soft-diet meals next time.

So the next meal I was served with were congee, lychee, soup and mouth-watering shrimps!

I can’t imagine hospital food can look and taste so good!  It was like dining in a restaurant.  I was pretty impressed with the presentation and the quality of the food being served!

Service

Overall, I think my experience with St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City was good.  However, it wasn’t perfect.  The facilities were more than satisfying but service was inconsistent.

Here’s my rating (5-highest, 1-lowest) for service:

• Admission Department: 5/5
• Hospital Escorts: 5/5
• Nurses: 4/5
• Food Servers: 5/5
• Cleaning Staff: 4/5
• Nurses Station/Room Floor Reception: 3/5
• Endoscopy Section Staff: 5/5
• Accounting Department: 5/5

Personal Experience

My hospital stay made me reflect on a lot of things.  This has got to do with the outpouring support from friends.  Honestly, I never thought that a lot of people do care for me.  I was deeply touched and humbled.

Most of all, I felt God as I see my brothers and sisters in Christ showing so much love and care.  I somehow felt I didn’t deserve it but God is so good!

You know, as soon as I got home, I immediately went to my bookshelf and got my Bible.  I started reading it like really reading and understanding it.  I want to get to know Him better and I was sorry for taking Him for granted.  When I got sick and when I thought I’d be spending miserable days in the hospital, God was there.  He made me feel that I’m not alone after all!

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St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City
32nd Street corner 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, 1634 Philippines
+63 (02) 789-7700
http://www.stluke.com.ph