The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104

It wasn’t strange that Hwang Sanghun brought up the topic of inpatient rooms.

In the rare cases where Korean medicine clinics use more than two floors, most dedicate one floor to inpatient rooms.

I had considered that idea myself.

There were quite often patients who made me want to just admit them and keep them under close supervision.

Some had serious conditions requiring hospitalization, while others couldn’t control external factors like alcohol through outpatient treatment alone.

Moreover, Sowon General Hospital, with which we had an MOU, occasionally asked if we could treat patients with post-surgical complications or chemotherapy side effects.

In such cases, I felt the need for inpatient rooms, but…

‘Realistically, maintaining inpatient rooms just for that would be impossible.’

In the martial arts world, or more precisely at the Dang Family’s Medical Hall, it had been easy.

I lived near the pavilion that served as the inpatient ward, and disciples were always stationed there.

Night shifts didn’t cost me a single penny, you see?

But hiring full-time nurses for night shifts just for the occasional one or two patients who needed hospitalization was honestly impossible.

To make it financially viable, I’d need at least 10 beds in the inpatient ward and keep them all occupied.

Most Korean medicine clinics that operate inpatient facilities take one of two approaches.

They either partner with Western medicine hospitals to receive large numbers of post-surgical patients, or they admit minor traffic accident patients.

There are rare exceptions, like clinics specializing in atopic dermatitis patients requiring intensive dietary management, but there are probably fewer than ten such places nationwide.

Korean medicine hospitals are different.

Of course, many Korean medicine hospitals also structure their revenue around minor patients, but they have options. If they want to, they can operate the way they prefer.

Even at my alma mater’s Korean medicine hospital, the patients I encountered had quite diverse conditions.

There was a tinnitus patient I happened to meet and treat.

Many patients were admitted after suffering strokes.

There were those who couldn’t get up due to lumbar disc problems, patients who lost consciousness in motorcycle accidents, and patients going back and forth between Western and Korean medicine hospitals while receiving chemotherapy – many people were getting the treatment they needed.

This is only possible at the hospital level.

You can hire doctors, and you need all the necessary medications and facilities to prepare for emergencies.

Having just one nurse on night duty wouldn’t be enough to handle critical emergencies.

That means I’d have to only accept minor injury patients with no risk of complications… and I don’t want to do that.

“I won’t do an inpatient clinic. If I’m going to do it, I’d need to properly open a Korean medicine hospital.”

I didn’t need to explain in detail why I wouldn’t do it.

Even among Korean medicine doctors, inpatient clinics don’t have a good reputation.

Some people are undermining the industry by indiscriminately admitting minor traffic accident patients, eroding public trust in Korean medicine clinics.

Yet Hwang Sanghun looked quite surprised.

“Are you thinking of opening a Korean medicine hospital?”

Ah, that’s what surprised him.

“Not anytime soon, of course.”

I’d spent my entire fortune buying this building and even took on additional debt.

Opening a Korean medicine hospital would cost 2-3 billion won even for a small one – where would I get that kind of capital?

It would take quite a while just to stabilize the external herbal pharmacy I was about to start.

But despite my denial, Hwang Sanghun didn’t relax his serious expression.

“What’s wrong? Are you worried it might become a rival to your brother’s Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital?”

“No, no! I would never think that. Since I left home, I don’t really consider myself connected to that place anymore.”

I was joking, but he looked flustered and waved his hands.

“What’s most important is that you do what you want and succeed at it!”

“Hmm.”

I thought for a moment.

Hwang Sanghun claimed he had no relationship with Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital anymore, but family ties don’t just snap like that.

And even if he really cut off all contact in the future, he must have learned things from what he’d seen and experienced there.

“How about you opening a Korean medicine hospital when you become independent later?”

“Huh…? Me?”

“Yeah. Like Director Chu who took over Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic Daegu Branch, you could swallow up Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital.”

“Ahahaha.”

Hwang Sanghun laughed.

I was actually being serious about this, but he seemed to think it was a joke.

“That would be interesting.”

“Well, if you ever want to become independent later, let’s do that~ For now, you need to work harder as our vice director.”

I decided to think about future matters when the time came.

For now, the question was how to use the newly available space.

I shared my interior design plans with Hwang Sanghun.

“When the academy on the 3rd floor moves out, I’ll move my examination room downstairs. I can put about 20 treatment beds since I work quickly with acupuncture.”

The clinic currently had only 10 beds. On days when Hwang Sanghun and I worked together, all patients had to share them.

Even though I could insert 100 needles in one minute, the needle retention time alone took about 20 minutes, and there were delays when conducting physical therapy, cupping, and heat treatments.

When all beds were occupied, patients had to wait in the waiting room.

“Ah. So you’d use the entire 3rd floor by yourself, while the new hire and I would handle both examinations and treatments on the 4th floor?”

“It would be complicated to examine patients here and then go downstairs for acupuncture treatment. Oh, on days when I’m off and you’re working with the new hire, that person should use the 3rd floor examination room, right?”

“I understand.”

Hwang Sanghun nodded.

“While I’m at it, I’ll move the examination room downstairs too and add more equipment. Since we get many patients with autonomic nervous system imbalances, I’m thinking of buying an HRV machine and an EEG device.”

The examination room had a fancy name, but originally it only had a blood pressure monitor and an InBody machine. We had added the ultrasound machine that Hwang Sanghun purchased.

However, perhaps thanks to Hyeon Jumi’s promotion, we were getting more patients in the psychiatric field, and I was feeling the need for additional examination equipment.

“I’ll buy another ultrasound machine and put it on the lower floor, so it would be better to take it to your examination room.”

Kim Chunsik in Seoul had also recently introduced ultrasound, and he was scanning all patients with ultrasound in his examination room.

Once you get used to it, that system would be better than the current method of only testing when necessary.

“Got it. There’s going to be a major change.”

“You just need to take good care of the patients like you’ve been doing! Fighting!”

I high-fived Hwang Sanghun.

Of course, he raised his right arm and energetically slapped palms with me.

But somehow his face looked disappointed.

Hmm, is it because I decided everything by myself?

“It’ll be nice having the CEO on a different floor, right?”

“…I’ll miss it.”

I threw out another joke to lighten his mood.

Hwang Sanghun smiled but shook his head.

* * *

I explained the future plans not only to Hwang Sanghun but also to the staff.

“So do we get a break while the interior is being redone?”

“No way. We’ll operate on the 4th floor while the 3rd floor interior is being done, and then work on the 3rd floor while the 4th floor is being fixed.”

“Ah~!”

The contractors would handle the interior work if we just paid them, and I decided to go with a company that Seo Inae recommended.

Now the important thing was how to set up the External Herbal Pharmacy on the 2nd floor.

What an External Herbal Pharmacy does is essentially import medicinal herbs, brew them into medicine, and send them to patients.

Where and how to source good medicinal herbs is most important.

Everything from clean storage to accurate brewing requires human eyes and hands.

I would have to do it myself until I found someone to entrust it to.

Last time I even met with professors asking them to introduce suitable candidates, but there’s been no word from them, and the space became available first instead.

So I decided I would handle the manpower for now, and what remained was the medicinal herbs.

“Ms. Seon-yun, do you have a moment to talk?”

– Clinic Director, how have you been? What’s the occasion for your call?

I had one route I’d cultivated for this.

Until now I’d dealt with general pharmaceutical companies, but as the volume of herbal decoctions increased, I needed to make new wholesale contracts.

To prescribe to patients at reasonable prices while using the highest quality medicinal herbs, I needed to reduce the money going to middleman distribution as much as possible.

I asked Park Seon-yun to help communicate with the company that supplies medicinal herbs from China, which I had mentioned before.

– Ah, that matter from before! Actually, I have a meeting scheduled soon anyway. We can visit together in the near future!

Park Seon-yun readily kept her promise.

Just making a phone call would have been enough, but she willingly offered to accompany me as well.

Wow, having a major corporation director by my side would be reassuring!

* * *

A few days later.

I visited the South Korean branch of a herbal medicine export company headquartered in Henan Province together with Park Seon-yun.

“I didn’t expect PK Director Park to visit in person.”

“Branch Manager Liu Wei says he didn’t expect PK Director Park to visit in person.”

Since it was a Chinese company, the branch manager appeared to be Chinese.

He even brought an interpreter and warmly welcomed Park Seon-yun’s visit.

Wow~ It’s been a while since I heard Chinese, it’s kind of nice to hear again!

When I first fell into the martial arts world without even an automatic translation system, I thought I’d go crazy trying to get used to it at first.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I hope both our companies will continue to cooperate closely and develop together.”

But didn’t he just say he didn’t expect her to come in person?

The original meeting that was supposed to happen… it probably wasn’t nonexistent, so did she take over a subordinate’s work?

“Are there any contract terms you’d like to adjust?”

“Oh, not at all! I wanted to tour the site and introduce someone to you.”

Park Seon-yun immediately introduced me to the branch manager.

“This is a Korean Medicine Doctor I’ve become close with through the connection of him treating me. He’s preparing to open an External Herbal Pharmacy, so I brought him to ask if supply would be possible under similar conditions.”

This could be a somewhat excessive request.

Since PK supplies products to pharmacies and convenience stores nationwide, the volume of medicinal herbs they import is truly enormous.

Asking for the same conditions for me, who would only handle herbal decoctions for three locations at most so far, was almost unreasonable.

“Ah!”

But the branch manager smiled brightly.

I had been worried that there might be problems with the PK contract, but my matter was actually on the lighter side of requests.

“If Director Park is introducing you, we should naturally do so. We’ll supply the highest quality, the best medicinal herbs. However…”

“I will definitely keep it confidential. Branch Manager, please don’t worry unnecessarily.”

“Oh, you’re fluent in Chinese too?”

“I once stayed at, no, observed at a Traditional Chinese Medicine University hospital.”

“Ah, I see! You must have studied through historical dramas? Your intonation is quite unique.”

Hm? Hmm? I thought I spoke normally in modern language…?

Did it show in my tone and inflection?

“Haha, I, I do enjoy historical dramas a bit.”

“Let’s look around together. I’ll guide you.”

The branch manager smiled brightly and personally guided us to the herb storage.

He seemed to understand all the practical details, explaining in detail where each herb was grown and how it was stored.

‘The angelica is definitely top quality. The dwarf lilyturf is good too…’

Most herbs would be fine if we sourced them from here.

The astragalus is a bit ambiguous though – should I stick with my original supplier even if it’s more expensive?

I nodded while recording the condition and characteristics of each herb.

“No, show it to me in a state where I can check the vertical length. How am I supposed to know if this is 1-year root, 3-year root, or 5-year root when you give it to me like this?”

But after making one round and coming out, I heard someone protesting in front of the herb storage.

“It’s definitely 5-year root. We only handle 5-year astragalus root.”

“The effects were exactly like 1-year root though? Since the thickness is all similar and hard to tell, please show me the original state.”

“We check and source them from the production site. They’re all already sliced, so we can’t show you the original form.”

“At least show me everything you have in the warehouse!”

It was a woman with her hair tied tightly in a ponytail, wearing an oversized gray t-shirt.

Her eyes looked strangely sized, as if she was wearing glasses with an extremely high prescription.

‘She figured out whether the astragalus was 1-year or 5-year root? In a state where the thickness couldn’t be determined?’

I turned my head in that direction.

I can sense the energy contained in herbs, so if I concentrate hard, I can evaluate products.

But… how exactly does that person do it?

“Who is that woman?”

“I apologize. She’s an employee from one of our client herbal medicine stores, making unreasonable demands. I’ll send her away quickly.”

“We have important guests, so handle it fast.”

The branch manager smiled brightly.

“There seems to be a small disturbance. Please don’t mind it.”

But I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

After quickly asking for understanding from the branch manager and Park Seon-yun, I rushed toward the woman who was protesting.

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