The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 119

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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 119

“The Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic I inherited from my grandfather is located in a tourist area. If we promote it interestingly with a martial arts concept, wouldn’t people stop by at least once?”

Those were Yu Gyeonghun’s words.

At first glance, it seemed quite good.

“The patient base would be very different from a typical Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic.”

But it wouldn’t be easy.

Occasionally, Traditional Korean Medicine Clinics specialized in specific conditions receive patients nationwide, but most clinics’ main patient base consists of chronic pain patients.

Our Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic was among those that had quite a lot of patients who came from far away through referrals, but we had just as many regular patients.

There were so many patients with back pain, stiff shoulders, and digestive issues that kept recurring due to aging or work overload.

But opening a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic in a tourist area on Jeju Island?

They’d come once, at most twice, and then it would be hard for them to come again.

When our Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic first opened, we occasionally had patients who sprained their ankles while hiking knock on our door, but in those cases, it was almost impossible for them to return.

If you treat them well, they get better and don’t come back, and if you don’t treat them well, they naturally go to a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic near their home.

“If you want to receive nationwide patients with a specialized strategy, a transportation hub in Seoul would be better than Jeju Island. If you want to receive typical pain patients, even on Jeju Island, a residential area would be better than a tourist area. Since your grandfather’s building is in a tourist area, it seems like you’re trying to fit a concept for promotion purposes, but do you think that’s okay?”

I spoke coldly.

Honestly, it seemed like it would be interesting, but… I really wanted to see it.

The economic and mental resources required to open a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic are considerable.

Would it be worth investing all that just because it seemed interesting?

But unlike the previous two business ideas, Yu Gyeonghun didn’t back down.

“I’m going with a strategy to catch three rabbits.”

“Three rabbits?”

“The first would be Jeju Island resident patients like you mentioned. Even though it’s a tourist area, it’s not that there’s no residential density, there are many restaurants and cafes. The floating population is quite substantial, though not as much as a market.”

“You’re going to target working people like in an office district?”

Yu Gyeonghun nodded.

“Yes, that’s the first one. The second is naturally patients who accidentally get injured in the tourist area.”

That patient group was naturally a part we had to take.

“What about the third?”

“We need to make people come all the way to Jeju Island to visit our Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic. We’ll become a tourist attraction ourselves, while also making people come from the mainland for treatment purposes.”

“Oh.”

“Haha, of course, to catch the third rabbit, we’ll need time for word of mouth to spread, and I’ll need to improve my skills more.”

Making patients on the mainland come all the way to Jeju Island.

“That’s an impressive ambition.”

I liked it.

After all, the essence of a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic is a place to treat patients, sick people.

If he had said he wanted to abandon that essence and just promote a concept to attract tourists, I would never have accepted a contract with them.

I would have persuaded him to do something like a concept cafe or experience center instead.

“Let’s give it a try. I’ll help you as much as possible.”

But I liked his ambition to make people seek him out from anywhere in the country.

Though he was modest at the end, looking at his self-introduction in the email and what he was saying now, he seemed to have confidence in his treatment skills as well.

I shook Yu Gyeonghun’s hand.

“Thank you!”

* * *

We had reached a verbal agreement, but we hadn’t written a contract yet.

I needed at least minimal verification of whether he was just all talk or if he really had skills.

Especially since Yu Gyeonghun seemed to have some stubbornness of his own.

“Yu Clinic Director, you’ll see today’s new patients.”

“What?”

If he had skills like Professor Kim Chunsik, I wouldn’t interfere.

But if he was just all talk? If he lacked skills but believed he was great?

That would be the worst. I’d rather have someone like Chu Miyoung who knew nothing and asked to be taught from the beginning.

“Is it okay to just do that?”

“What’s the problem? I’ll register you as a substitute. Of course, I’ll pay you a daily wage too.”

“What if they come back looking for me next time?”

“Good confidence. Don’t worry, I’ll accept the risk of patients leaving because Yu Clinic Director isn’t here.”

Anyway, that’s what we normally do when assigning substitutes.

Substitute practice means when the doctor who originally runs the hospital can’t see patients due to personal reasons, another doctor sees patients in their place.

Sometimes it’s assigned short-term for 2-3 days due to travel or family events, and sometimes the hospital is entrusted for several months due to reasons like childbirth.

Naturally, when the doctor who sees the initial consultation is different from the doctor who sees the follow-up, some patients won’t come, but it’s better than keeping the doors closed the entire time.

Oh, of course, I was confident I could satisfactorily treat patients who had their initial consultation with Yu Gyeonghun when they came for follow-ups.

“Hello. I came because my arm has been numb for a week.”

Yu Gyeonghun sat at my desk, looking awkward.

He seemed flustered since he came thinking he’d be observing but was suddenly asked to treat patients, but he wasn’t the type to get very nervous.

“Welcome!”

He eagerly grabbed the patient’s hand.

Hmm? Unexpectedly enthusiastic type?

“Was there any incident a week ago that could have caused the onset?”

“Uh, I’m not really sure.”

“Ah, so there’s no particular trigger you can think of. Do your neck and shoulders usually get stiff easily?”

“Since I work at a desk, my shoulders do get heavy if I don’t stretch properly. The orthopedic doctor said it was a disc problem, so I received treatment for a while, but it wasn’t getting better at all.”

Fortunately, the patient was perfectly ordinary.

He hadn’t come with extremely high expectations from a referral, nor was he looking with suspicious eyes ready to evaluate.

Yu Gyeonghun asked the necessary questions, and the patient answered faithfully.

“Oh my! You’ve been through a lot. Does the numbness only go to your elbow? Or does it go all the way to your fingertips?”

“It goes all the way to my fingertips.”

“Is it concentrated in specific fingers? Or do all your fingers feel numb?”

“All my fingers feel numb.”

“I’m going to compress your neck once. It’s called the Spurling test, a physical examination to check for cervical disc problems. Please let me know if the arm numbness is reproduced!”

After briefly checking the symptoms, Yu Gyeonghun performed the Spurling test on the patient.

This is a test where the patient tilts their head back and turns it about 45 degrees, then the doctor vertically compresses the forehead with their hand.

This compresses the disc, so if the cause of arm numbness is nerve compression due to a disc, it will be reproduced in the test.

“Do you feel arm numbness or sharp pain in your neck?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Then I’ll press on a muscle called the scalene.”

“Agh!”

The patient who hadn’t reacted at all to the Spurling test screamed when the scalene muscle was pressed.

“It’s not a disc problem, but scalene syndrome. The brachial plexus passes under this muscle, so when the nerve is compressed, arm numbness easily occurs.”

“Ah, I see?”

“I’ll insert needles into this muscle to release it. If you work at a desk, your shoulders tense up and it’s easy for compression to occur. Stretch whenever you have time, and massaging it directly will also help. Get treatment today, and if any discomfort remains, come back once more tomorrow!”

“Yes!”

Yu Gyeonghun made the diagnosis smoothly.

The treatment was also accurate.

Some Korean medicine doctors avoid treating the neck directly for fear of accidentally puncturing the carotid artery, but he seemed to have a lot of experience.

The email mentioned that he worked as a public health doctor and tried to treat as many diverse patients as possible even under poor conditions, and it seemed that wasn’t just a formulaic phrase.

Yu Gyeonghun rotated the patient’s neck to the maximum and safely inserted needles into the tender points of the anterior and middle scalene muscles.

All the treatment procedures were meticulous, including finding tender points in surrounding muscles and inserting needles.

“The numbness is gone and my neck and shoulders feel much more comfortable!”

The patient left the clinic very satisfied.

“Director Jeon, you try too.”

“Me? I don’t have experience, is it okay to leave it to me?”

“It’s fine. You learned well at school.”

“What if we get bad reviews because of me…!”

“I’ll step in if there seems to be a problem. Don’t worry and see patients.”

Unlike Yu Gyeonghun, Jeon Minji was a bit flustered.

She apparently hadn’t expected to be told to see patients herself so readily.

She had been smiling triumphantly while watching her husband treat patients, but suddenly became very flustered when she sat at the examination room desk.

“Doctor! My finger hurts so much!”

And she got a very anxious patient.

“What should I do? My thumb feels strange when I bend and straighten it! It makes clicking sounds too!”

“Uh, how long has this been going on?”

“It’s already been ten days! Our customer said this clinic is good, so I came…! Please help me!”

Jeon Minji bit her lower lip.

I don’t have mind-reading abilities, but I could guess her feelings.

She was probably thinking, why did it have to be a finger joint pain patient instead of common shoulder or back muscle pain?

But that’s actually a very common condition.

“It seems like trigger finger syndrome.”

As expected, she recognized it without difficulty.

She apparently hadn’t studied carelessly at school.

“Trigger? Like a gun?”

“Yes. It’s called that because it’s stiff like a gun trigger. Um, the flexor tendon that bends your finger, that is, the tendon is inflamed and swollen. Because you use it a lot.”

“Then what should I do?”

“We need to reduce the inflammation. You’ll get better if you receive herbal injections and acupuncture. Don’t worry too much.”

Jeon Minji injected herbal medicine directly into the patient’s finger, at the inflamed area that was causing pain.

“Ugh…!”

Since the needle was going directly into the thumb joint, the patient squeezed her eyes shut.

But once the herbal injection went in, the stiff finger flexion became much more comfortable in just one try.

“Oh my!”

“I’ll do acupuncture treatment too.”

“Yes, yes!”

“I’ll treat the connected muscles as well.”

Her needle insertion technique was also decent. She seemed to have practiced sufficiently.

Actually, until obtaining a license, there aren’t many opportunities to practice except for volunteer activities supervised by professors or students giving each other acupuncture, so many people have clumsy needle insertion skills.

“If you still have pain, come tomorrow too! The head director isn’t here today so I treated you, but a more skilled director will see you!”

“Oh, thank you so much~!”

Jeon Minji successfully treated the patient.

‘Both of them are decent…?’

Since I had already decided to pay them substitute fees, I assigned a few more new patients to both of them.

Yu Gyeonghun continued treatment by persuading patients based on his abundant knowledge and appropriate charisma.

Jeon Minji also gradually relaxed and began communicating with patients.

“It was very good.”

After clinic hours ended, I sat the two of them down and gave a brief evaluation.

“It was good that you didn’t just accept the Western medicine diagnosis of disc problems and made a proper diagnosis yourself, and your treatment points were accurate too.”

“Thank you.”

Yu Gyeonghun grinned broadly.

“However….”

But it was a bit disappointing that he had categorically denied it was a disc problem.

“Even when you’re confident in your diagnosis, it’s good to leave yourself some room to retreat. The actual cause might be the scalene muscle, but when they actually get an MRI, a disc might show up, right?”

“Ah, that’s true.”

There are very many cases where there are no symptoms even when tests show disc protrusion.

The actual cause of the numbness is scalene muscle tension, but if you get obsessed with test results, you end up doing the wrong treatment.

Then when they receive proper treatment at a Korean medicine clinic and their symptoms improve, naturally most patients are very pleased.

But very occasionally….

“There are patients who go get more tests and then get angry saying ‘It really is a disc problem!'”

“Ah.”

Yu Gyeonghun swallowed bitterly.

“And Director Jeon, it would have been good if you had taken a look with ultrasound.”

“Huh? Ultrasound?”

“Yes. It healed quickly because it was early stage, but when trigger finger becomes chronic and severe, the ligament ossifies and creates hard foreign matter. In that case, acupuncture won’t work at all.”

“Ah….”

“In such cases, you need to inform them that surgery is necessary, so it’s better to check accurately.”

Jeon Minji nodded vigorously.

She scratched her head saying she hadn’t thought that far, and also confessed that she actually wasn’t very good at reading ultrasounds.

“It’s fine. I also improved by doing it. I’ll teach you slowly.”

While there were things to correct and learn, overall it was very good.

They couldn’t have learned nothing during six years of Korean medicine school, but having no direct treatment experience, they seemed to underestimate their own knowledge and skills.

If I taught them tips that are hard to learn in school and they gained experience, they would quickly become familiar with it.

I printed out contracts and handed them to both of them.

“Thank you for accepting even though I made such a sudden unreasonable request. I look forward to working with you.”

“No, we’re the ones who learned a lot.”

I had observed both of their initial consultations, and they had also observed some of my follow-up consultations.

Perhaps the trust patients had in me was contagious, as the way they looked at me was filled with even more eagerness.

Thud!

Yu Gyeonghun stamped his seal.

Jeon Minji did the same.

“You can take your time reading it.”

“We already checked everything with the preliminary contract. Please take good care of us!”

Finally, as I stamped my seal next to my name, the network contract was established.

Phew, so this is how the 4th branch comes to be.

“You haven’t finished the specific preparations for opening yet, right?”

“Yes. While Minji observes you here and learns various things, I’m planning to go down to Jeju to prepare.”

Actually, there was a lot to prepare besides medical practice.

Basic procedures like hospital establishment registration, of course, and Yu Gyeonghun said the building he inherited from his grandfather wasn’t ready for immediate use.

Since it hadn’t been maintained at all after his grandfather passed away, everything from repairs to interior design needed to be redone.

“The martial arts concept… you’re really doing that…?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s go together.”

“Huh, to Jeju Island?”

“That’s right.”

Where else would we go together?

“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it properly. I’ll go too, and let’s bring Director Chu so we can put our heads together.”

Chu Miyoung’s abilities were absolutely necessary for this plan.

If tourists wandering around tourist areas accidentally entered a Korean medicine clinic where Korean Medicine Doctors were dressed up in martial arts concepts, they would likely turn around and leave immediately.

We needed to promote it somewhat in advance through SNS, so people would visit knowing that this was originally that kind of place.

If that was the case, it would be better to have Chu Miyoung, who has good sense, cooperate from the initial space design.

Since she’s an influencer, wouldn’t she have better aesthetic sense than me?

I immediately contacted Chu Miyoung to ask if a business trip to Jeju Island would be possible.

“Wow, a Jeju Island trip with Doctor Han! That sounds great! I’ll book a hotel with a swimming pool!”

Fortunately, Chu Miyoung readily agreed.

She said she could ask the Daejin Director to cover medical practice for about two more days and make a 2-night 3-day trip possible.

I could also leave things to Hwang Sanghun for a day and go.

So we booked flights to Jeju as a group.

‘I haven’t told them yet that we’re making the 4th branch with a martial arts concept… it should be fine, right?’

Well, I can tell them when we get there.

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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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