Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Doctor Ling, shall we visit the patient first or go to the operating theater first?” the associate hospital director followed Ling Ran as he asked in a friendly manner.
“I’ll be in charge of seeing the patients, and the others will be in charge of looking at the operating theater,” Ling Ran answered quickly.
While they spoke, Huang Maoshi as well as his immediate superior, Xie Yihe, got out of the car behind him and trotted over.
Compared with doctors, medical sales representatives of medical companies had a better understanding of instruments and equipment. Of course, a professional pharmaceutical sales representative such as Huang Maoshi, who depended on his cute face to get things done, could only ask for help.
Aside from Xie Yihe and Huang Maoshi, Yu Yuan and Wang Jia also followed them into the operating theater.
They had been working in the operating theaters for several years. Even if they were not entirely certain about the settings in the operating theaters for infected patients, they could tell what was going on.
The facial expression of the associate hospital director from the Third People’s Hospital was not a good one, but he chuckled a couple of times. “Our hospital also carries out surgeries, and the protective measures taken by our own doctors are always in place. Even if others don’t talk about it, once cross infection occurs among the patients, we are finished.”
“You have your standards, and we have ours. If everything is great at the Third People’s Hospital, why would you have come to us?” Zuo Cidian laughed as well while he took over the conversation.
“Our standards are also famous in Yun Hua.”
“Then the standard of your freelance surgeons must be really low.” This was one of the main reasons for Zuo Cidian’s terse tone.
Just as expected, the imposing might of the Third People’s Hospital’s associate director deflated.
As the saying went, “Once you accepted someone else’s kindness, you have to serve them properly.” With Ling Ran’s current standard, when he performed freelance surgeries elsewhere, he could receive 5,000 RMB to 10,000 RMB per case, and the hospital hiring him obviously could not just ask him to perform one case. In addition to the business-class air ticket they covered for him, his total income would amount to 20,000 RMB or 30,000 RMB after a day’s surgery.
However, if he did not get those freelance surgeries through personal relations, and obtained them through standard out-of-hospital consultations, it was only natural that he would not obtain so much money. The Third People’s Hospital was also located in Yun Hua. Apart from offering a few cars as transportation, the subsidy they gave for each surgery was only 500 RMB per doctor each day. That amount of money could not compare at all.
The associate hospital director put on an obsequious look as he quickly said, “It’s mainly because our patients are not very rich. If we were to collect more money from them, many of them would rather go to other hospitals and lie. Oh… speaking of which, I also had a hard time…”
When he put himself in the victim’s shoes, Zuo Cidian did not have the heart to continue asking for money.
“Only Doctor Ling was willing to come.” Zuo Cidian pouted. “Department Director Huo didn’t want to offer out-of-hospital consultations before. You should know about that, right?”
“I understand that the fact Doctor Ling is willing to come is rare. I would like to thank Doctor Ling on behalf of the whole hospital and the patients of the Third People’s Hospital,” the associate hospital director blurted out the pleasant words. As Zuo Cidian listened to him, he gave him the stink eye.
“Let’s head to the consultation room. I want the information for the medical scans to be as comprehensive as possible,” Ling Ran interrupted the duo’s conversation, which was not entirely pleasant.
The associate hospital director no longer talked about the operating theater, and Zuo Cidian did not even have the energy to continue talking.
Today’s primary hospitals were very similar to the township enterprises in the early 1980s. They were very weak, but they had some resilience and were pretty wild. Most importantly, they were very motivated.
Unlike tertiary Grade A hospital doctors, they all had a clear understanding of their future plans: to do standardized training, become resident doctors, attending physicians, and associate chief physicians, lead a team or become chief surgeons for a patient, perform freelance surgeries to buy villas, then reach the peak of their lives…
Primary hospital doctors could not go far in life if they chose to advance through their paths in life by improving their skills. They could only advance if they followed the administrative system.
The longer a person stayed in primary hospitals, the more that person would be able to see the cruel chain of disdain in the medical field. Eventually, all primary hospitals would go on the road of soliciting patients and making money. This was because the only way doctors from primary hospitals could gain the respect of their whole department was to solicit enough patients.
A hospital and department with enough patients would be regarded differently by senior doctors of tertiary Grade A hospitals, even if the doctor’s level was poor.
If primary hospitals could actively hire freelance surgeons, it would not only get the attention of senior doctors from tertiary Grade A hospitals, but they would also get the patients’ favor. Then, they would enter a benign cycle. In fact, if the cost of a patient’s entire treatment was calculated, when a primary hospital hired a high-class freelance surgeon from a tertiary hospital, the price the patient had to pay was much lower than if they obtained the same medical treatment from a tertiary hospital.
Of course, if one wanted to get top medical services in China, regardless of the cost, one’s priority would always be tertiary Grade A hospitals, or more precisely, Peking Union Medical College Hospital. If one could not get treatment there, only then would one seek treatment from other top-class hospitals.
But not every Chinese could ignore the economic pressure on them.
Having high-class freelance surgeons from large hospitals operate on patients in primary hospitals was pretty much the medical scheme with the greatest price-performance ratio in China.
Compared with paying thousands of RMB to freelance surgeons, the cost for other medical treatment in primary hospitals was very low, allowing them to save up on a lot of money. This was especially so for patients with limited medical insurance. The difference in cost was even greater.
The situation at the Third People’s Hospital could be considered very special.
As an infectious diseases hospital, even if the patients had the money, they might not necessarily be able to hire a top-tier freelance surgeon to operate on them.
Most freelance surgeons received a stream of endless invitations. They did not have to earn money from infectious diseases hospitals. If they did not do a good job on the patients there, they would have a bad reputation as well. In the case that these top-class doctors were not invited, they would still prefer to take a day off at home and spend time with their families.
Therefore, the Third People’s Hospital could only try to get help from surgeons through the formal out-of-hospital consultation process.
At that time, Ling Ran was the best knee arthroscopy doctor they could find.
A stack of patients’ information was placed in the office, which had been cleared for the occasion.
Zuo Cidian took the X-rays from the stack and hung them on the light box in sequence. Then, he sorted out the MRI scans and hung them on the light box too.
The associate hospital director watched in a daze. He was an internist, and while he had worked together with many surgeons before, he had never seen anyone do such a thing before.
Ling Ran looked through them one by one. This was not something that those who had learned how to read scans from medical institutes would do. This was something only those with Perfect Level X-ray Scan Analysis and Master Level MRI Analysis would do.
Ling Ran adjusted the order of the MRI scans and did the same to the X-rays.
Then, Ling Ran picked out two X-rays and said, “Give them an MRI scan.”
Without waiting for the associate hospital director to respond, Ling Ran took out three X-rays and said, “Their symptoms aren’t suitable for arthroscopic meniscoplasty.”
Ling Ran saying that patients were not suited for surgery was clearly much harder to accept than Ling Ran’s request for the patients to receive MRI scans.
“The problems in the knee joint are far beyond the meniscus. Other problems such as their ligaments will need to be handled at the same time during their surgery. I can’t perform such a surgery,” Ling Ran told him his weakness straightaway.
“Y-You don’t have to do it perfectly—” the associate hospital director stuttered.
“I can’t do it,” Ling Ran interrupted him.
The associate hospital director could only bow his head and say, “All right, I’ll go and explain to the patients.”
Ling Ran nodded and continued to read the medical scans as well as medical records.
He always had to see the medical scans before he conducted the surgeries.
…..
Yun Hua Emergency Medical Center.
Lu Wenbin was as happy as a goose who had learned how to fly.
He sent the pork trotters to the ward area in the Emergency Medical Center, the inpatient building, and later, to the surgical floor.
Unlike other doctors from the Emergency Department, he did not have to be on standby in the resuscitation room or treatment room at all times. After Ling Ran left, there was no surgery left for the Ling Treatment Group to perform.
It had been some time since Lu Wenbin enjoyed the experience of working without his boss around.
When Huo Congjun was his boss, Huo Congjun would go out for meetings from time to time. After Ling Ran took the place as Lu Wenbin’s boss, Lu Wenbin did not have as much time to relax because Ling Ran’s freelance surgeries were usually during the weekends, Lu Wenbin was only able to relax a little during his trip to Shanghai the last time.
Wenbin himself took a pork trotter and ate it while he sang, “Let’s learn to meow like a cat, let’s meow meow meow meow meow together. I’ll act cute before you… Ack, ouch ouch… Ah, what the… Department Director Huo?”
Lu Wenbin’s bite around the pork trotter loosened, and the pork trotter he was eating fell to the ground. Judging from the looks of it, he could not eat it anymore.
Lu Wenbin found it such a pity that he almost cried. He did not know when the last time the hospital corridor was disinfected. If it had just been disinfected, he might still be able to eat his pork trotter…
“There’s a patient with a flexor tendon injury. Ling Ran’s performing surgeries in the Third People’s Hospital. He won’t make it back, so he recommended you. Do you think you can do it?” Huo Congjun’s voice came from above, and Lu Wenbin was so shocked he trembled.
“I’ll… I’ll be performing the M-Tang technique independently?” Lu Wenbin could not care less about the greasy braised meat, and he could not smell the tasty aroma of the pork trotter anymore.
Huo Congjun nodded earnestly and said, “Ling Ran said that you’ve done three hundred M-Tang technique cases with him, and instead of transferring the patient to receive ordinary sutures in the Hand Surgery Department, it’s better to give you the patient.”
“I’ll do it!” Lu Wenbin did not dare delay his answer any further. He feared that he would lose the opportunity.
