Dubai’s Most Mentioned Hospitals: Sick on Friday, What is Your Best Option?

Over the course of two weekends, our editors visited the emergency rooms of the four most mentioned private hospitals in Dubai: Saudi German Hospital, Al Zahra Hospital – Al Barsha, Mediclinic – City Hospital, and American Hospital. The symptoms our editors communicated to the doctors were consistent with each visit: coughing with a severe headache, the night before, with the symptoms improving on the day of the ER visit. Our answers to additional doctor queries were also the same. After going through our experiences at these hospitals individually, our observations are as follows:

Doctor: Saudi German Hospital - Winner For all hospitals, department specialists were available every day of the week except Friday. Therefore, a check-up with a doctor was only available through their respective Emergency Rooms. The doctors conducted more or less the same diagnostic tests, and asked similar questions relating to current medications, allergies, working conditions, and if we experienced anything similar in the past. The diagnostic procedure at Mediclinic - City Hospital, and American Hospital were almost identical: breathing exercises, ENT check, and sinus tap. Additionally, Al Zahra, and Saudi German relied on a tongue depressor to check mouth and throat.

Most notable was the progression of questioning at Al Zahra, and Saudi German. The Al Zahra doctor examined the eyes, and requested additional follow up tests with Ophthalmology, while the doctor at Saudi German requested us to see a Neurologist in the likelihood our headaches persisted for more than 3 days, as he believed our condition could simply be stress-related. The doctors at both Al Zahra, and Saudi-German were more thorough in concluding their diagnosis with additional scrutiny of potential biological, and psychological factors respectively.

Staff: Saudi German Hospital - Winner From the minute you walk in to the hospital, register, see the doctor, pay, and receive your prescriptions, Saudi German came out on top as the most efficient. The only downside to Saudi German was the confusing process at the pharmacy. We took an automated ticket, but it wasn’t corresponding to the order in which the pharmacist was attending to the patients. However, with only a handful of waiting patients, we received our prescriptions in the order we expected.

Prescription: Depends on your view towards antibiotics, and prescription brands. Painkillers were prescribed by all the hospitals, but varied in the brands. Based on our visits, only Mediclinic - City Hospital prescribed antibiotics.

Total Cost: Al Zahra Hospital, Al Barsha - Winner With a total cost of 275 AED, and a deductible of 42.9 AED with insurance, Al Zahra was clearly the most cost-effective hospital. For more detailed reviews of each of the hospitals from our community please click the following: American Hospital Mediclinic – City Hospital Al Zahra Hospital – Al Barsha Saudi German Hospital