Path of Medicine With a System

The W Province southerner reported Zhu Qianqian and Zhang Fan to the hospital administrative department. He had a detailed record of how much money Zhu Qianqian had taken from him, along with a detailed list of his gifts. He even included the two boxes of smokes that he had given to Zhang Fan. One box was worth 100 yuan, so that was 200 yuan in total. The hospital administrative department’s director had a dark expression from seeing all this.

Although the southerner spoke Mandarin Chinese with a heavy accent, the director could still understand his insults quite clearly. “This is a place of extortion, this is no hospital!”

“Let me go confirm all this.”

“No need to confirm. I even have sound recordings from yesterday night of your doctor extorting more money from me. If you don’t deal with this properly for me, I’ll go report this to the media! I can’t believe it, daring to ask for red packet bribes!”

“Oh!” The hospital administration director broke out in a cold sweat. He wasn’t afraid of patients who had conflicts with the hospital, as he could simply resolve them, but getting a patient conflict reported in the news would be no small matter. “Please, drink some water. Let me report this matter to my boss. Rest assured, we’ll definitely properly deal with this matter for you.”

The hospital administration director had originally wanted to try and smooth things over himself. Typically, with patient conflicts, the locals wouldn’t make too much of a big deal of things. As long as they felt like they had regained face, nobody would stir up too much trouble.

This was the first time that the hospital administration director had met a patient who directly threatened to report the incident to the news. That was why the director hurriedly went to go inform Superintendent Ouyang. When he finished explaining the situation, Superintendent Ouyang slammed her fist on her desk in anger. “Go summon Zhu Qianqian and Jumabieke to my office.” She didn’t tell the hospital administration director to summon Zhang Fan.

Zhang Fan had just achieved a major accomplishment for the hospital, so he was spared from Superintendent Ouyang’s wrath. Besides, she knew that he was only a rotation doctor, so his involvement in this matter was minor. She would simply have a few words with him in private.

Not long after, Director Jumabieke arrived together with Zhu Qianqian in Superintendent Ouyang’s office with a dark expression. The hospital administration director wanted to leave, but Superintendent Ouyang didn’t allow him to do so.

“What exactly is going on!? Just how are you managing your department!?” Superintendent Ouyang first directed her anger towards Director Jumabieke.

Since Director Jumabieke had studied abroad in England before, he was rather arrogant, and sometimes didn’t really listen to Superintendent Ouyang. Not only that, he actually managed the respiratory department strictly and excellently, with not a single problem showing up. In addition, he had high emotional intelligence, and was generous to his subordinate doctors. His respiratory department was a very popular department for doctors to want to join. This all gave Director Jumabieke a great deal of authority.

Now, Superintendent Ouyang finally had her chance. She wouldn’t be named Ouyang if she didn’t at least make Director Jumabieke pay a little here!

“It’s all my fault. I didn’t manage things strictly enough, and didn’t discover the problem in time. I accept whatever punishment I’m given,” Director Jumabieke apologized to Superintendent Ouyang. While on the way to her office, he had already asked Zhu Qianqian about all the details of what exactly had happened with the tuberculosis patient.

Director Jumabieke wasn’t afraid of anything happening to him. First of all, the patient had been successfully treated, so there was no medical incident to worry about. Secondly, he hadn’t personally been involved in taking bribes one bit. This meant that Superintendent Ouyang could at most only lecture him a little. It would be impossible to fire him from his position of director for this. Also, if he claimed that it was all his fault and took the blame on behalf of Zhu Qianqian, his subordinate doctors would all soon learn about this.

Director Jumabieke wouldn’t actually be punished for this, and it wouldn’t cost him anything to have Superintendent Ouyang lecture him a little. He could even gain even more popularity and approval from his subordinate doctors through this. It all seemed like such a great deal to him!

Superintendent Ouyang could only turn all of her anger onto Zhu Qianqian. “You! What’s the matter with you? Are you so poor that your family is about to collapse? If you’re in such dire financial straits, don’t you know that you can apply for financial assistance from the hospital? Our hospital takes care of all our employees. We also have various organizations and the Communist Party taking care of us. With how brazen and shameless your behavior was, how are others going to judge our hospital now?” Superintendent Ouyang’s words were incredibly harsh—she was truly furious.

Zhu Qianqian had been a doctor for many years already, yet she had never met a patient like the tuberculosis patient who took revenge on her for her greed. The tuberculosis patient’s revenge left her absolutely stunned.

Zhu Qianqian’s tears constantly poured out as Superintendent Ouyang lectured her. What could she even say? She couldn’t say anything to defend herself, because even if she successfully treated the tuberculosis patient, it was ethically wrong, illegal, and corrupt to be accepting red packet bribes. Normally, very few citizens would report such a thing, and the government would simply turn a blind eye. However, if anyone did report it and make a big deal, it would turn into a huge amount of trouble.

“Superintendent Ouyang, I’m the most to blame since I was unable to properly supervise my subordinate. Since it’s my fault, please allow me to personally discuss things with the patient. I will definitely resolve this situation to everyone’s satisfaction, and will absolutely not allow it to affect the hospital,” Director Jumabieke offered.

“What if your discussion with the patient ends in failure?” Superintendent Ouyang immediately asked.

“If I fail to reach an agreement with the patient, feel free to do as you please, Superintendent.” Director Jumabieke was now angry as well. Superintendent Ouyang scolding Zhu Qianqian so harshly right in front of himself and the hospital administration director was also a slap in the face to him, the equivalent of saying that he was poor at managing his department. He had to stand up and do something.

“Alright, then go discuss things with the patient. We can talk again after that.” Superintendent Ouyang waved her hand and agreed to having Director Jumabieke negotiate with the tuberculosis patient.

After Director Jumabieke and Zhu Qianqian left the superintendent’s office, Zhu Qianqian’s face was covered in tears as she said, “Director!”

She was so choked up that she was unable to say anything else.

“Why cry! You have me to cover for you. This has probably left you with a really good lesson. Work more properly in the future! Go wash your face and go to work.” Director Jumabieke had been in his position of director for several years now. He was quite experienced at how to talk to and deal with various different people from across different social strata.

What could even an outsider businessman actually do here in the border province? Director Jumabieke wasn’t worried at all, because he knew that the tuberculosis patient could only scare his subordinate doctor Zhu Qianqian at most.

The W Province southerner was quite relaxed, having tea and smoking in the hospital administration department office. ‘Humph, it was so easy to deal with that doctor,’ he thought to himself.

Director Jumabieke entered the hospital administration office. He had already asked the hospital administration director to tell everyone else in the department to leave, so Director Jumabieke and the southerner were now alone in the office.

“How are you feeling now? Do you still have any fever? You no longer have a cough, right? And your chest shouldn’t hurt anymore!” Director Jumabieke greeted the southerner.

The southerner was in no mood to use friendly etiquette like before. He simply nodded slightly, and said, “I’m alright now.”

“Our doctors truly put their best efforts into every patient’s care. As for you, you already paid your medical fees. Now, our doctor was in the wrong, and we admit this. We will refund your complete medical fees in double, thus compensating you for the same amount that you originally paid. Will this be alright with you?”

“Of course not. I demand a personal apology, and emotional distress compensation in addition to refunding my medical fees.”

“Haha! Why go to such extremes? If you do that, how are our doctors supposed to stay at this hospital still? Do you really want to ruin my doctor so completely for a single small mistake of hers? Yes, she’s in the wrong, but don’t you think there’s no need for her to suffer from such tremendous and severe consequences?”

“That’s not something I need to worry about. If she isn’t taught a lesson, she’ll forever think that we patients are easy to take advantage of.”

“Must you be like this?” Director Jumabieke stopped smiling.

“I must.”

“Alright, then. I’ve heard that you’re in the leather business here in our border province? You know, I’m a local from Chasu City. I have several relatives who work with livestock out on pastures. I also have some friends who are in charge of livestock quarantine inspections. Also, you should know already that your tuberculosis illness is an infectious disease. If you really want to go to such extremes, do you really think that you’ll still be able to freely do business and make money in our border province? You should really know when to stop. I’ve already said everything I need to. I don’t care if you’re recording me or not. There’s this phrase that you Chinese Han people like to say that I really approve of. ‘You must show restraint in dealing with others, for you may meet them in the future again.’”

“Oh!” The southerner dropped his cigarette in surprise from hearing all this.

Director Jumabieke directly got up and left after saying this, without even waiting to hear a response. He met with the hospital administration director outside the office.

“How were things?”

“Everything is alright now. I’m sorry for the trouble. Little Zhu is still young, and doesn’t know the rules. I will properly educate her myself. It’s not easy for any attending physician. You were once a doctor yourself, so you know how it is. We should protect them whenever we can.”

“I’m more than willing to, but what are we going to do if the patient in our office refuses to let things go?”

“I believe that he will. He’s quite a reasonable person,” Director Jumabieke commented as he chuckled and left.

The hospital administration director was rather confused. But, it was as Director Jumabieke predicted. The southerner had truly been cowed into submission by Director Jumabieke!

In the end, as the hospital promised, all of the tuberculosis patient’s medical fees were refunded to him in double. All of the red packet money was also returned in double, and the small gifts such as food and drink was calculated for its worth and returned in double as well. Luckily for Zhang Fan, he hadn’t opened either box of smokes yet, so he simply had to return those.

Zhu Qianqian was ordered to write a self-reflection. She would be issued zero bonuses for the next six months. She wouldn’t be allowed to be selected for any hospital awards or study programs for the next three years, either.

The entire respiratory department’s bonuses for the month were deducted as punishment for the department not only daring to accept a patient with a Class B infectious disease, but also not reporting it to the hospital. As Jumabieke was the director, his bonuses were deducted for the next three months as punishment, and he would need to give a self-reflection speech before the hospital leadership.

Superintendent Ouyang’s punishment to everyone for this incident could be considered incredibly severe. Zhu Qianqian had truly learned an unforgettable lesson that she would never forget, and with such a big ruckus, the entire hospital learned that Zhu Qianqian was the main culprit responsible for the entire respiratory department being punished. Although almost every doctor had taken red packet bribes before, this was something that couldn’t see the light of day. It wasn’t something that could be publicly discussed.

Superintendent Ouyang also privately lectured Zhang Fan—just a little. “Pay more attention to your actions. Was it really necessary for you to take two boxes of smokes from that patient? Just look at how that patient insulted you afterwards!” Zhang Fan’s face was bright red from embarrassment. However, Superintendent Ouyang had already given a lot of face to Zhang Fan as she was fully capable of scolding Zhang Fan far more harshly.