Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
He Yuanzheng only had thirty consultations today.
His Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery was a small department. Not only did his department have fewer doctors on duty, the housemen and interns under him were fewer in number as well. Most importantly, no high ranking doctor who could perform major surgeries existed in this realm.
Without sufficient doctors, it was meaningless to take in more patients. The surgery consultation room was meant for surgeries, so no matter how many examinations and infusions were administered, they meant nothing. If they tried to increase their income through this channel, the medical insurance companies would catch on and argue with them until the end of the world.
This was also the reason why He Yuanzheng did not fight back too seriously when Ling Ran occupied the hospital beds in the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. He would rather have the Emergency Department take advantage of them than hire another assistant lecturer or lecturer into the department and challenge his authority. If he hired an assistant lecturer, he might need to give him a treatment group, otherwise he was just a waste of space. Similarly, if he needed to hand over a treatment group to an unfamiliar doctor, he would rather hire nobody.
What He Yuanzheng looked forward to now was to train up the subordinates beneath him.
Such were the hurdles of a (rather) young doctor. For He Yuanzheng, who was in his early forties and studied overseas, not only did he lack subordinates, but the junior apprentices he could use were too young and could not immediately make any independent decisions, so he could only take them by the hand, suppress them so that they could not improve too quickly, but still allow them to grow slowly.
Luckily, surgeons could be trained very rapidly. When doctors have undergone the proper training in medical college, and reached the age of becoming attending physicians, and if they were given a chance, they could do just as well as an assistant lecturer in two or three years’ time.
Of course, it was not easy to get a chance. Chances were not only given to the young doctors for them to train their skills, but most importantly, they were for the other doctors to undertake certain menial tasks.
Even the simplest cholecystectomy served as a wall where many beginners would fail to completely remove the gallbladder during the latter part of the surgery or even end up perforating the gallbladder, causing bile to flow out. Senior attending physicians might not make such silly mistakes again, and when they did, their seconds would fill in some filthy shoes.
Ling Ran’s appearance had solved some of He Yuanzheng’s problems.
For example, the problem about bonuses. If there was only one high ranking doctor like He Yuanzheng who took care of the entire department, he would not only wear out, there will also be no improvement in the volume of surgeries and income. So, the doctors would not be the only ones feeling underpaid. The nurses, housemen, and interns would feel the same.
Although Ling Ran adopted the model of only performing surgeries and not take in the patients under his treatment and in turn increase the workload of the nurses and doctors-in-charge in the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, he had greatly increased their income and stabilized the department.
Besides, although He Yuanzheng rarely used Ling Ran, He Yuanzheng still treated Ling Ran as someone who could cover up his mistakes. In fact, many doctors in Yun Hua Hospital had such thoughts.
They usually did not want to use Ling Ran, but when the patient’s survival was of vital importance and had lost more than 134 ounces of blood, Ling Ran was probably one of the best individuals and perhaps the only doctor at Yun Hua Hospital who could save the patient.
That was one of the factors why the doctors in a hospital would respect high-ranking doctors.
However, when Ling Ran started getting involved in consultations, He Yuanzheng became very worried.
When a doctor performed consultation, he used his fame to draw in patients, and it was a matter that affected the masses. What should he do if everyone came to Yun Hua Hospital to look for Ling Ran when they needed consultation for hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery?
He Yuanzheng did not care if Ling Ran was just a normal young doctor. However, Ling Ran was highly skilled, he was young, handsome, had someone supporting him, and was most often talked about…
He Yuanzheng could hardly explain his mood. He quickly finished consulting all thirty patients and allocated the additional patients to receive consultations in the afternoon. Then, he pretended to stretch his body and went out of the consultation room. Then, he walked along the corridor, raised his head, and looked at the number display screen at the nurse’s desk, before he asked, “Doctor Ling doesn’t have any numbers left? He finished consulting all of them?”
For consultation at Yun Hua Hospital, once the patient took the number, they would wait for their number to be called at the waiting halls at the top floor. The conditions in the waiting hall were similar to the conditions of the waiting rooms in slightly more high class gas stations. The consultation room of every department had the reach of octopuses that surrounded the waiting halls and the central hall. The nurse’s desk at the corridor would be in charge of calling out the numbers and organizing the patients whose numbers were not called yet to enter.
The electronic display screen in front of the nurse’s desk would then display the called numbers and patient’s name. It looked like the system used in McDonald’s. But of course, it was not as user friendly as McDonald’s.
If the doctors had any comments on the number arrangement, they would come out and enquire at the nurse’s desk and have the nurses on duty sort it out.
He Yuanzheng was very familiar with the process. However, the nurse on duty today did not check on the computer immediately but slanted her head and think. She put her hand at her lips and tried to act cute, then said, “Doctor Ling only arranged ten slots for this morning and arranged examinations in between the patients. Now, there were another two patients who have gone through the examination and are back for consultation.”
He Yuanzheng was not happy with the nurse’s attitude, but as he listened to her, he could not help but frown. “He only arranged ten slots?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s still consulting them now?”
“Yes.”
“Alright.” He Yuanzheng turned around skeptically and decided to take a look personally.
When the young nurse who answered the question just now saw him open the door and walk into the corridor, she said to the nurse beside her, “Do you think that Department Director He has damaged his ears? He wants me to repeat everything I said just now in order to understand.”
“Don’t go off running your mouth… The door isn’t closed yet,” another young nurse said in a lower voice. If it were not for the key words she mentioned before this, it would have been less likely for He Yuanzheng to hear her last phrase.
*Bang.*
He Yuanzheng closed the metal isolation door at the corridor with great force.
In the corridor were two rows of seats, and there were patients and their families waiting there.
There were a few consultation rooms there, and each of them had plates written with [basic consultation], [attending physician], and [specialist] hung over them.
There were only around one to two people waiting in front of the doors to the basic consultation and attending physician rooms. Most of those patients came back for a follow-up visit or to have a minor illness checked. When He Yuanzheng saw that there were only a few family members accompanying them, he could understand.
He Yuanzheng found himself in front of Ling Ran’s consultation room and skidded to a halt.
“Judging from your MRI scan, the liver and gallbladder are not much of a problem. There are some polyps, but it should be fine… However, judging from this MRI scan, your stomach seems to have some problems. It should be a rather serious ulcer. If we look from here, the bottom part of the stomach even has some varicose veins…” Ling Ran spoke at a moderate pace, and his voice was like a stream that flowed out slowly from the consultation room.
He Yuanzheng listened for a while and came to a sudden realization. ‘You’re performing consultation for the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and now you’re consulting patients for their stomachs and intestines as well?’
He Yuanzheng frowned and felt that he could chastise Ling Ran on this point alone.
Then, He Yuanzheng stood at the door and waited for the patient to come out.
He waited and waited…
And kept waiting…
Ling Ran was still elaborating on the patient’s condition. On top of that, he even shared some medical knowledge with the patient.
A normal doctor would take three minutes to end a session. He Yuanzheng looked at his phone. Fifteen minutes had passed.
‘Is Ling Ran doing this on purpose?’ He Yuanzheng could not help but have this thought in his mind. He stood up again and suddenly heard the patient inside standing up as well.
“Thank you, Doctor Ling. Your explanation is so detailed and good. Now, we understand it.” The family members kept expressing their gratitude and said, “Then, we won’t go for the surgery first. We’ll take some medicine first…”
Ling Ran’s voice was as tender as a jade, “As long as the disease is treated, it’ll be fine. Surgery is not always a must. Remember to have your meals on time.”
The patient continued to thank him. “Okay, sure. Sigh, you are much more patient than the doctors we see overseas. You’re not like those doctors, they’re always so messy.”
“It’s always good to be orderly.”
“I know, right?” The patient took his leave as he expressed his thanks, and he walked away with a smile.
He Yuanzheng hesitated for a second and saw another patient going in before shutting the door.
*Bang.*
He Yuanzheng took a deep breath and looked at the door of the consultation room, now shut tightly. Then, he felt that he should no longer wait.
He turned around. The alcohol-based hand sanitizer hanging outside the door suddenly attracted his attention.
Beside the colorful alcohol-based hand sanitizer was a printed A4 paper that gave a reminder: Please disinfect your hands before coming in and when you leave.
He Yuanzheng pushed some out. It was citrus flavored, and it felt good when he put it on his hands. But…
“Where did this alcohol-based hand sanitizer come from?” He Yuanzheng could not help but complain.
“Isn’t it always there?” A patient looked at He Yuanzheng curiously.
He Yuanzheng looked around and saw that there were colorful alcohol-based hand sanitizers hanging at the entrance to every consultation room.
‘When did this happen?
‘Who bought them?
Who put them there?
‘Why did I not know of this?’
He Yuanzheng’s eyes were full of puzzlement.
