Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 96

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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 96.
Sung-hyuk was too agitated to hear what Beom-jun was saying.
“You’re saying you’ll do something other than treating patients at the hospital? That makes no sense. What will you do about the patients we have right now?”
He’d become fixated on the supplementary revenue that Eun Tae-gyeong had mentioned. Sung-hyuk, who had spent his entire life thinking only of patients, couldn’t fathom his meaning.
“I’m not saying we’ll stop treating patients immediately. We’ll do that and add other revenue streams if they exist. Ha, it seems Professor Im missed the context?”
Tae-gyeong spoke to Sung-hyuk as though teaching him, his tone remaining composed. There was a warning buried in his words, but it had little effect on Sung-hyuk.
From the start, Sung-hyuk didn’t compromise easily with his convictions. Even if the creator of Doctor X himself came instead of the chairman of Eunseong Group, he would say it wasn’t right.
In the original work, Im Sung-hyuk always did as he set his mind to. He sacrificed everything else if it meant saving a patient. No one from Doctor X could stop Sung-hyuk.
But sacrifice always carries a price in its wake. Medical staff wrung dry from overwork collapse, and having to face new patients without proper preparation was where it started.
After that, it significantly hindered the treatment of the next patient.
‘If the hospital runs well, we can treat patients well too.’
Beom-jun partially agreed with what Eun Tae-gyeong said. Having become both a doctor and an administrator, he thought he understood Tae-gyeong’s position.
For a doctor to treat patients freely, the hospital had to support it. He’d learned painfully since possessing this body that it wasn’t as simple as he’d thought.
In that sense, Eun Tae-gyeong was seeking a way for the hospital to survive.
His attempt to turn his gaze elsewhere for revenue since treatment wasn’t profitable—that was only possible because he wasn’t a doctor like Im Sung-hyuk.
Medical staff like Im Sung-hyuk would have devoted themselves solely to treating patients.
“That’s all the more reason to support treatment. When patients recover, more patients will come.
There’s nothing more urgent at Eunseong right now than raising the capacity of our doctors.”
Sung-hyuk spoke about the essence of the matter to Tae-gyeong, and eventually Tae-gyeong snapped too.
“Are you saying Eunseong Hospital’s doctors are lacking?”
“You’re only realizing this now? Yes. They’re lacking! How have you been treating patients all this time? Paying the treatment bill isn’t the end of it.”
Sung-hyuk’s voice, usually measured, trembled slightly. His emotions were rising too.
Beom-jun let out a thin sigh.
He agreed entirely with what Sung-hyuk was saying, but now wasn’t the time or place for this conversation. Certainly not after being courted by the chairman of Eunseong Group.
“Im Sung-hyuk.”
Beom-jun cut off the agitated man.
“That’s enough.”
At Beom-jun’s words, Sung-hyuk closed his mouth firmly and lowered his head.
[Control Power is being applied to Im Sung-hyuk.]
[Control Power Level 5: Handle it yourself.]
After the Status Window appeared, Sung-hyuk regained his composure.
“…I apologize. I was reminded of old memories. I would hope you won’t cut support from treatment because it doesn’t generate revenue.”
He, whose thoracic surgery had been scorned for years because it didn’t make money, seemed to have projected his own circumstances onto Eunseong Hospital’s situation.
“It seems Professor Im got a bit heated, but I’m sure there was no malice behind it.”
Beom-jun apologized to Eun Tae-gyeong as well. These were words he might not have said in private, but this was the Chairman’s Office of Eunseong Group. More than that, he was the one with the quest hanging over his head.
But Eun Tae-gyeong’s attitude had already shifted.
“I said something unnecessary. Please forget the proposal I mentioned as Director.”
He quickly withdrew the bait he’d cast moments before. Well, there was nothing Beom-jun particularly wanted anyway. He couldn’t do it because of the quest anyway.
If anything, since Eun Tae-gyeong was pushing harder, it was easier to have the conversation. Better than pretending something wasn’t wrong when it was.
Beom-jun brought up the topic casually.
“But Professor Im Sung-hyuk’s point has merit too. Both the promotional video you mentioned and the military hospital consignment project were only possible because treatment was the foundation.”
In the end, the backbone of any medical business is treatment. What can you do without treatment? Honestly, it could be said Tae-gyeong was being greedy.
“When you see medical revenue increasing, you’ll notice certain departments standing out. For me, that was thoracic surgery and Professor Im Sung-hyuk.”
“Ah, ah, so then I can see a picture of how to generate supplementary revenue afterward. That’s what you mean.”
Now that business was being discussed, vitality returned to Tae-gyeong’s face. Having caught the scent of money, he participated in the conversation actively.
“Precisely.”
“So provide more support? Well. We’ve been investing for ten years now. I couldn’t keep pouring water into a leaking bucket, which is why I wanted to bring Director Choi Beom-jun in.”
Beom-jun grinned at Tae-gyeong, who had regained his composure.
“Then, how about we fix the bucket this time?”
“Eunseong Hospital?”
“More precisely, the system in which Eunseong Hospital’s doctors work.”
Sung-hyuk reacted first with a start at Beom-jun’s words. After using Control Power, Sung-hyuk hadn’t uttered a single word, but he nodded vigorously in agreement.
Watching Eun Tae-gyeong show interest, Beom-jun sensed that quest completion wasn’t far away.
‘If I explain the shortcomings in Eunseong Hospital’s system, I can build a partnership.’
* * *
Eunseong Hospital’s medical staff worked under excessive control.
When medical staff didn’t work proactively, the quality of treatment couldn’t be good. Whether patients improved or not, it was all the same.
No matter how good the hospital’s facilities, if treatment is merely mediocre, patients won’t come.
A university hospital needs at least the belief that patients can entrust their health to it, but Eunseong Hospital missed the mark from the start.
But this could be seen as one of Eunseong’s characteristics as a corporate hospital.
Since patients are customers,
medical services provided as a matter of customer service revolve around patients, leaving medical staff passive by necessity.
The low growth potential of Eunseong Hospital doctors was proof of this.
Whether patients trust the hospital or not is the same—the doctors’ perspective doesn’t care. As long as their paychecks aren’t delayed, that’s all there is to it.
“It would be good to provide clear incentives.”
Beom-jun spoke to Tae-gyeong.
‘If you’re going to run a hospital like a company, you have to do it right.’
In fact, many indicators are used to measure hospital performance—complication rates, surgical success rates, and so on. If compensation followed these metrics, even Eunseong’s doctors, accustomed to control, would move without exception.
“So you think Eunseong Hospital’s doctors can’t treat patients—or rather, aren’t treating them?”
Eun Tae-gyeong pinpointed the essence of Beom-jun’s suggestion.
In truth, Eunseong Hospital’s doctors, taken as a whole, lacked the ability compared to those at Korean University Hospital. Few had abilities filled to capacity. Perhaps Professor Jeong Da-eun?
Given Eunseong’s organizational culture, the people who remained were those who preferred to work adequately and receive adequately.
So the doctors at Eunseong Hospital both couldn’t treat patients well and weren’t treating them well.
“Well. The more people try to do something well, the better they become.”
Beom-jun spoke indirectly rather than bluntly.
Partnership was right around the corner, and he didn’t want to dampen Tae-gyeong’s mood. Any good message fails to land if it doesn’t sound like it’s spoken with good intentions.
‘Who knows? Maybe when incentives are introduced, they’ll all try to do well then.’
Just from hearing good things about Beom-jun from Woo-jin, the hostility had disappeared—they seemed like fundamentally uncalculating people.
“I’m not sure incentives will help. Our doctors have no ambition. We’ve tried raising salaries, offering promotions, everything. Those who came from abroad seem satisfied just living in Korea.”
Tae-gyeong was skeptical of Beom-jun’s words. He seemed to have tried his own way too, but without effect.
“Salary and promotion talk are distant, but incentives would hit their bank accounts next month—I think it might be different.”
“Hmm, I suppose.”
It was a lukewarm response. Tae-gyeong seemed to have little expectation from the start about doing anything with doctors.
“What if you put faith in the doctors?”
“Ah, well. I have faith. I’m feeling hopeful.”
Tae-gyeong, who had decided long ago to set aside doctors and pursue revenue through other avenues, clearly lied, and Beom-jun began to persuade him.
“At least when they became doctors, they surely resolved to spend a lifetime saving others.”
Every doctor takes the Hippocratic Oath before graduating from medical school.
– I solemnly swear to dedicate my life to the service of humanity.
Beom-jun too remembers when he recited that opening line.
“Mmm, is that so? I’m not a doctor, so I wouldn’t know well.”
“Even if it’s faded now, that first resolution must still remain somewhere, mustn’t it?”
Tae-gyeong rubbed his head with his hand. He looked troubled. The plan to bring Beom-jun in as Director of Eunseong Hospital had come to nothing, and he seemed burdened by receiving advice from someone now virtually a stranger.
“If it feels burdensome, we can apply it first at Korean University Hospital and share that structure with you if it’s effective.
We already have many indicators to measure performance, so it should just take setting the criteria for how to distribute incentives.”
“…What’s the condition for Korean University Hospital to assume the risk?”
He could have simply accepted it and still owed nothing, yet Eun Tae-gyeong didn’t take Beom-jun’s proposal merely as a favor. He asked what he should give in return, viewing Beom-jun thoroughly as a partner in negotiation.
Meanwhile, Beom-jun, running on the quest, hadn’t thought deeply about what he would gain from Eunseong Hospital.
‘Condition? What should I ask for?’
But the answer was right beside him. Beom-jun’s eyes met those of Im Sung-hyuk, who had been observing silence since using Control Power.
The reason this guy could come here without abandoning his duties was because Eunseong Hospital’s doctors had come on assignment.
“Have Eunseong Hospital’s doctors pass through Korean University Hospital during their residency. They’ll need to work at Korean University Hospital for at least one year while doing their Resident training.”
“That’s not bad. It would provide educational opportunities like this assignment.”
“Yes, we’ll develop them together at Korean University Hospital.”
“Ha ha, Director Choi Beom-jun, you really speak my language.”
At Beom-jun’s words, Tae-gyeong seemed satisfied. Tae-gyeong’s characteristic smile—the one that made him look like a good person—had returned.

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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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