Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 64

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 64.
By the day of IRB Approval, Im Sung-hyuk had completed preparations for the new treatment method.
“The approach isn’t significantly different from PCI, so there’s no need for great concern.”
He explained that the Jason Therapy’s process of traveling through blood vessels to the heart resembled other procedures.
Even so, it wasn’t one hundred percent identical, yet Im Sung-hyuk showed no fear at attempting a new procedure.
“Are you really sure about this? I understand, but it’s not an emergency. We can postpone if you need more preparation.”
“No, I can do it. Actually, quite the opposite. I’m looking forward to it.”
‘He’s anticipating it when the patient’s entire remaining life rests in his hands?’
The protagonist truly was different.
Beom-jun clicked his tongue inwardly.
“However, since Patient Kim Gang-woo is still refusing the procedure, it’s possible we may not be able to perform it at all.”
But the problem was Gang-woo.
Under normal circumstances, Patient Kim Gang-woo would be teetering on death’s edge, and Im Sung-hyuk would have to save him at that critical moment.
But this time, things had gone awry from the start—this time, the medication prescribed by Professor Kang had proven quite effective.
Eventually the heart muscle would need to be reduced, but for now the symptoms were being suppressed with medication, creating a dangerously deceptive situation.
If Gang-woo refused to listen to the doctor, there was nothing to do but continue persuading him—until his condition became truly critical.
Sung-hyuk’s voice had dropped slightly, but his stiff face remained as usual as he spoke.
Beom-jun detected the subtle shift. This was a serious situation.
“Tell me in detail. What’s his reason for refusing?”
“He feels like a lab rat. I must have told him a hundred times that this is a fully developed treatment method.”
Im Sung-hyuk eventually vented his frustration about Gang-woo. He regarded failure to convince a patient as shameful.
“Well, I suppose he could think that way. It’s not because of the Consent Form, is it?”
“So I revised the wording and made a new one, but he’s still unsure. The Legal Guardian hasn’t been much help either.”
In “Doctor X,” the process of obtaining a patient’s Consent Form wasn’t described in detail.
Im Sung-hyuk always rushed into treatment, while guardians and patients were pressured into signing.
Thanks to Beom-jun, there was now more time to talk with patients as treatment schedules became flexible, yet Im Sung-hyuk seemed to find this situation uncomfortable.
A chronic condition, this.
[Name: Im Sung-hyuk / Position: Professor]
Medical Interview: ■■■□□
Examination: ■■■□□
Diagnosis: ■■■■■
Treatment: ■■■■■
Follow-up: ■■■■□
Sung-hyuk’s Medical Interview was still at three out of five. Average level. He seemed to find time spent with patients tedious.
“Take your time. We have plenty of it.”
“…Yes.”
Beom-jun sent off the sullen-faced Sung-hyuk and messaged Min Jeong-shik, the director.
He wondered if there might be a clue from someone raising a grown son.
The director had mentioned his high school senior was aiming for a Korean medical school. In “Doctor X,” Patient Kim Gang-woo had also said he’d become a doctor someday before being discharged.
– The patient is rejecting it, so it will take more time to apply.
– What? The approval is done, but if we don’t use it, there will be repercussions. It will look like we pushed through something non-urgent.
The Jason Therapy had been processed for IRB Expedited Approval thanks to Director Min’s help. Beom-jun hadn’t even known such a thing existed, but it could be used in cases requiring immediate application.
But as the timing of treatment application became unclear, Director Min Jeong-shik suddenly felt the pressure.
– Why is he rejecting it? So many people are working hard for just this one person.
– The patient is an adolescent, so communication isn’t easy. He’s fourteen years old. He’s a boy, and his expression tends to be reserved.
– Ah, I see. It’s that uncertain time of life. When he doesn’t want to show his fear.
Min Jeong-shik’s typing suddenly quickened; he understood.
– Come to think of it, you’re a father yourself.
Beom-jun naturally guided the conversation toward his son.
– Yes, my boy went through the same thing. It’s my case, but if you don’t treat him like a child and give him choices, he’ll like it.
At Min Jeong-shik’s words, Beom-jun, still messaging, rested his chin in his hand. Hmm, so that’s it.
– Ah, right now isn’t a situation where he can choose. Perhaps you should forget that last part.
– No, that’s enough.
From the conversation with Min Jeong-shik, Beom-jun found the thread.
‘So don’t have the doctor give orders—let the patient choose. That’s it, right?’
He thought he had a rough sense of how it should go.
* * *
The next day, Beom-jun called over Sung-hyuk after his consultation was done. He said he’d teach him how to handle Patient Kim Gang-woo.
“Be my colleague.”
“Pardon?”
“Something like this feeling. You understand, right?”
“I don’t understand.”
Unfortunately, Im Sung-hyuk’s reaction was unenthusiastic. Having abandoned his work to come here, he looked blankly at his superior’s seemingly nonsensical remark.
“It’s advice from a father who managed to raise a high school senior son. The answer is set, but let him choose, you know? Participate in our objective. It’s something like that.”
Sung-hyuk still wore a dull expression. Once a person was registered as talent, applying Control and Authority came automatically. But Beom-jun didn’t do that. It had been a long time since he’d used Control on Im Sung-hyuk.
As trust between them built, there was no reason to force anything.
“…I’ll try it first.”
Sung-hyuk said he’d give it a try again. Judging by how his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, he still seemed not to grasp Beom-jun’s meaning.
But the man didn’t make commitments he couldn’t keep. Whatever he said, he meant it.
Deviating from the original story was making Im Sung-hyuk struggle quite a bit. What had once been easy—dealing with patients—was now difficult, and what had been difficult—treating patients—was now easy.
Still, one way or another, he had to put a period on the quest to implement the Jason Therapy.
Hmm, Beom-jun wiped his mouth with his hand, wondering if there was anything else he could help with.
* * *
The next day.
Somehow it had grown cold enough that outer garments had thickened.
Among the crowds, Im Sung-hyuk also arrived at work wearing a sweatshirt under a puffer jacket.
Once outside the hospital, without his white coat, he looked like a neighborhood ahjusshi.
Except he was considerably taller, and people around him cast rather numerous sidelong glances.
Focused ahead, Sung-hyuk crossed the Pedestrian Crossing without noticing the stares. A biting wind that blew between the office buildings blew his jacket hood backward.
The wind was sharp. November was already nearly over.
The IRB Approval had gone through faster than expected. He’d hoped Gang-woo would be admitted to match that timeline, but not only was there no admission plan—he hadn’t even received a Consent Form yet.
‘After all, the Legal Guardian will be the one signing anyway, so why make it so complicated?’
Sung-hyuk was investing considerable time just to hear an okay from the boy’s own lips.
It was because of Beom-jun’s request. The words to consider the patient, to listen to the patient’s story.
After identifying Patient Kim Pan-su’s referred pain through Medical Interview, Sung-hyuk was making an effort.
‘Damn it, if I could just gag him and tie him down before treatment, it’d be easy. The moment I open my eyes, he’d be home, and wouldn’t that be great?’
Part of his mind screamed that it couldn’t be that way, but honest Sung-hyuk’s actual feelings weren’t so different from before.
Simply because it worked. Because listening to the patient’s story helped the treatment.
Every patient has their own story. In other words, no one exists without one. And if you empathize with every story, there’s no end to it.
As if understanding this state of Sung-hyuk’s, Beom-jun came to his Professor’s Office.
“You called me yesterday too. What brings this on?”
“I was just passing by.”
“There’s no reason for the Director to pass through here.”
‘He really is blunt.’
Sung-hyuk was sharper than usual today.
[Im Sung-hyuk’s emotions are shared with you.]
Beom-jun couldn’t say he’d come because of him. That he knew Sung-hyuk was under considerable stress over Patient Kim Gang-woo.
“It’s tough, right? You’re working hard. Your patients should know about this.”
Beom-jun said this while patting Sung-hyuk’s shoulder.
He knew Sung-hyuk’s way of physically dragging patients along worked better. Beom-jun had experienced that vicarious satisfaction while reading “Doctor X” too. He also understood that in “Doctor X,” such actions would never be a problem.
So the fact that Im Sung-hyuk was now stressed was actually because Beom-jun hadn’t sanctioned his methods.
“Since the patient is a party to the treatment, they represent the greatest variable. I must respond individually to how the patient reacts.”
Sung-hyuk spoke with unfocused eyes.
“The course of treatment is already decided, and honestly the patient probably won’t understand the entire process anyway, so I don’t see why I need to convince him.”
“Because you’re treating a person, not a machine.”
At Beom-jun’s words, Sung-hyuk turned his head halfway the other way. It was the kind of clichéd thing a doctor would hear a hundred times.
And Beom-jun added one more thing.
“Your treatment isn’t entirely your responsibility.”
“What do you mean? My name goes on the prescriptions, the diagnoses—everything.”
“You do the treatment for a bit at the hospital. But managing health for life—that’s on the patient himself. Was the goal to discharge the patient? Or to make him healthy?”
Working at a University Hospital, countless patients were admitted and discharged every day.
For them it was likely a life-changing event happening once or twice in a lifetime, but for medical staff it was ordinary, happening daily. And with hundreds of patients, the focus fell on handling the immediate work quickly.
“…That couldn’t possibly be the case.”
“If the patient doesn’t understand the treatment process, they’ll stray from that path quickly.”
Either way, you have to walk with the patient. Even if the doctor leads and the patient falls behind, they must be looked after.
The reason a doctor can’t just walk away is that the patient will spend far more time alone afterward.
Beom-jun—or rather, Ui-jin—wanted Sung-hyuk, his long-held dream and hope, to understand this.
In the process of a patient recovering their health, there is no more reliable colleague than a doctor.
Just as Beom-jun had been influenced by Sung-hyuk, perhaps Beom-jun now wished to do the same.
“If he relapses later and comes back to the hospital, what we do now becomes meaningless. You don’t want to do something so pointless, do you?”
Sung-hyuk brought his half-turned head forward. Mulling over Beom-jun’s words, he nodded a couple of times, then slowly opened his mouth.
“That’s right. That makes sense.”
Whether there was more to say or whether the words left a lingering weight, he kept his mouth half-open even after finishing.
Probably Sung-hyuk had been handling far too many patients until now to spare time for them. “Doctor X” was that kind of place.
But Sung-hyuk understood Beom-jun’s words and made them his own.
“I won’t be in the patient’s entire life. I was thinking about it wrong.”
And then, a notification appeared.
[Im Sung-hyuk’s Medical Interview has increased by 1.]
[Name: Im Sung-hyuk / Position: Professor]
Medical Interview: ■■■■□
Examination: ■■■□□
Diagnosis: ■■■■■
Treatment: ■■■■■
Follow-up: ■■■■□
His Medical Interview ability had become four out of five.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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