The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 194

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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 194

Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital was the largest hospital in the Korean medicine field.

Whether measured by number of branches, number of employed Korean medicine doctors, revenue, or recognition, it ranked first in everything.

Among these, the problematic aspect was recognition.

It would have been great if it was known as a hospital that provided excellent treatment, but…

“A place where so-called fake patients like to lie down.”

People who aren’t actually sick but claim to be and get hospitalized for purposes like fraud or insurance money are called ‘fake patients.’ The term means they’re not real patients.

This was because they would admit anyone without distinguishing between real and fake patients, provide hotel-like services, then charge more treatment fees than anywhere else.

Especially to car accident patients whose treatment costs were fully covered by the at-fault vehicle’s insurance company.

Even when it’s not malingering, there are many patients suffering from pain that doesn’t show up on tests.

So while it’s good to examine patients with an open mind.

…From what I heard from Hwangseoyeong, there were many people you absolutely couldn’t mistake.

Like people who would get hospitalized claiming to be sick, then refuse treatment and go out to clubs without permission.

At the Gangnam main branch where Hwangseoyeong worked, they would cut out such people like a knife, but honestly, it wasn’t a situation where there was smoke without fire.

“Grandfather took pride in our hospital contributing to public health and promoting Korean medicine to the world. But the various measures my uncle-in-law took to increase revenue are distorting that true intention.”

“Ah…”

Hwang Jihun spoke calmly.

“Then didn’t your grandfather try to stop that?”

It might be a rude question, but I was genuinely curious.

I’d heard Hwangseoyeong curse countless times that he was quite a control freak.

“Of course he gave orders to manage things thoroughly. But sprains and pain from muscle tension often don’t show up on diagnostic equipment, right? Since we ultimately have to rely on patient statements, Korean medicine doctors’ diagnoses are important, but it’s difficult to unify those standards 100%.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it now. We can’t just not accept car accident patients because we get some criticism.”

“Actually, it was also my uncle-in-law’s achievement to include car accidents as a major treatment area for Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital and start promoting it. While it did damage the hospital’s reputation in the end, there are actually far more patients who are really sick, and we have tremendous advantages in treatment effectiveness compared to Western medicine.”

While Hwang Jihun added a nuance of moderately acknowledging Director Jeong Suhwan, Hwang Sanghun openly expressed hostility.

“Anyway, I understand what you want, brother. I really don’t mind, so work as hard as you want and come back.”

You want to give your uncle-in-law a taste of his own medicine, right?

Hwang Sanghun nodded.

“Thank…”

“Thank you! The Clinic Director’s decision will be a great help in stopping my uncle-in-law’s unethical management that undermines trust in Korean medicine and wastes insurance premiums.”

Ah, uh, hmm.

It wasn’t such a big decision.

Hwang Sanghun, whose words were cut off, glared hard at Hwang Jihun once.

‘He really is an impressive person.’

Hwang Sanghun must have persuaded him like that too, right?

When he said he’d give him a chance like last time, it didn’t work at all.

If he had asked for help because they were family, he would have told him to get lost since they’d cut ties.

“Don’t worry about us and help without regrets. If there’s only a week left in the handover period, I’ll either see more patients myself or listen to this Clinic Director’s opinion and find a substitute director.”

I felt the same way.

How could I refuse after hearing such words?

I readily accepted Hwang Jihun’s request.

* * *

After consulting with Lee Ahreum, we decided that the two of us would see Hwang Sanghun’s patients for the time being.

It was more comfortable to push ourselves a little rather than having new people coming and going.

“I don’t mind if my workload increases a bit! I’ve been seeing the fewest patients, so I felt sorry about that.”

I was really grateful that Lee Ahreum was so enthusiastic.

“Oh, Changwon? That’s not even far.”

There were even patients who said they’d drive back and forth to Changwon for a while.

“Director Jeong Suhwan.”

I’d been curious ever since hearing the name, but because I extended my clinic hours to 6 days, I only had proper time a few days later.

‘So he’s the hospital director of Ilsan Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital?’

After searching around, I found that he had maintained the hospital director position at one place since the Ilsan branch was established over 30 years ago.

Wow, over 20 Korean medicine doctors? This seems like it would be among the top-ranked Korean medicine hospitals in terms of scale.

‘Sanghun’s father’s hospital, ah…’

Originally, Yongsan Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital, which was passed down to Hwang Sanghun’s father, was bigger, but it seemed the Ilsan branch had surpassed it by expanding its scale.

The Gangnam main branch was different since they built a new building later and the Emperor managed it directly.

‘Is this person the aunt? Director Hwang Jeongyeon?’

While no family tree appeared like with some conglomerate groups, since it was close to family management, I could easily infer by clicking around the medical staff introductions on the website.

‘Director Hwang Jeongyeon is the education department head at the Ilsan branch. Is she supporting Director Jeong Suhwan?’

These two people had teamed up to rapidly expand the Ilsan branch.

‘Sanghun’s mother is, hmm… they said she had an affair and is abroad.’

The eldest son couple’s marriage had essentially fallen apart.

Her management abilities also seemed to fall short of Director Jeong Suhwan’s.

The Emperor had essentially made his eldest son and son-in-law compete, and the outcome was practically decided by ability.

But then he suddenly changed direction, saying he liked his grandson.

From Director Jeong Suhwan’s perspective, he naturally wouldn’t easily give up to his young nephew.

– They’re really having fun playing, aren’t they?

When I brought up the topic with Hwangseoyeong, she said without any concern.

– It’s not like I’m hiding anything. I’m just not interested. Whoever wins is on our side~!

“Really? I’d still like Jihun hyung to win though.”

– Well, Jihun oppa does have some principles. Even though he’s strict, he doesn’t do weird stuff like uncle-in-law.

“Weird stuff?”

– You know, putting up wall charts in every staff break room ranked by sales, humiliating whoever’s last. And giving bonuses to whoever’s first.

“He does that kind of thing?”

Why do I keep hearing horror stories?

It’s not like posting grades on walls at school decades ago, what is that?

– It’s pretty famous, didn’t you know?

I had no idea.

How can a hospital operate while doing such things?

“Why don’t they quit?”

– Because he pays a lot of money…? As long as you’re not last, you get decent performance bonuses, earning more than most private practitioners.

I shook my head disapprovingly.

It was definitely not a good approach for patients, let alone the Korean medicine doctors.

Tsk, I clicked my tongue.

Unless I was directly confronting them like with the old Haneul Clinic, there wasn’t much I could do.

“I hope Sanghun hyung helps out well.”

Always doing his best in whatever position he’s in.

I silently cheered for my colleague who I believed was doing exactly that.

* * *

Was it because several hospitals were monopolizing patients?

Despite hearing there were so many traffic accident patients, I hadn’t seen that many.

Of course, there were some, but at most three or four a month? Even those were cases referred from other places where treatment hadn’t worked well.

“The accident happened two weeks ago. I was initially hospitalized at Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital, but I didn’t get better at all, so I went to an orthopedic clinic. But they said there was nothing they could do, so I went to Sowon General Hospital to at least get an MRI… They recommended me there, which is how I ended up here.”

Kim Juhyeok, 30 years old. His address was quite far away too.

This was also a referral case, which was similar.

But the route was quite unusual.

Since we had an MOU, patients occasionally came from Sowon General Hospital, but this was the first time orthopedic surgery had sent a musculoskeletal patient.

“You were hospitalized at Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital Busan Branch, right? First, please tell me the details of the accident.”

“Yes, so on the highway to Daejeon…”

Was it because he had to recite the accident details every time he went to a hospital?

Kim Juhyeok explained the unpleasant memory very logically and systematically.

* * *

Kim Juhyeok was in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend who lived in Daejeon.

Since it was still early in their relationship, no matter how busy he was, he went up to Daejeon to see his girlfriend twice a month.

When he was tired, he took the train, but since he generally liked driving, he usually used his own car.

That day was the same.

After leaving work promptly on Friday evening and getting in his car, he drove safely, thoroughly following traffic rules.

In front of a crosswalk.

The traffic light was red.

Kim Juhyeok naturally stopped.

Crash!

A strong impact came from behind, as if something had hit him hard, or rather like being struck by rocks from a landslide.

“Ugh!”

Kim Juhyeok’s body, which had been leaning back in his seat waiting for the light to change, lurched forward.

And when he bounced back again.

Kim Juhyeok unconsciously grabbed his neck.

‘Is it broken?’

If your neck breaks, you die, right?

Along with that foolish thought, his head spun.

“Ugh!”

He felt like he was about to vomit any moment.

His vision was shaking.

‘There was a traffic accident, right? Right?’

Somehow it felt like his arms and legs weren’t moving properly.

Kim Juhyeok struggled and barely managed to open the car door.

Then he almost crawled out of the car and collapsed face-down on the ground.

“Ugh, urgh!”

But no vomit came out.

How can I feel this nauseous and dizzy?

“Ah~ I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

…A thug?

He instinctively realized the other person was bad news.

I instinctively sensed that the opponent was in bad shape.

It might be prejudiced of me, but there stood a picture-perfect blonde, tanned delinquent.

“Honey, sorry~ the car in front wouldn’t move! Geez, can’t you clearly see there’s no one on the crosswalk?”

He was already feeling queasy, and just hearing their voices made him angry.

Curses were about to burst out, but Kim Juhyeok responded calmly like the intellectual he was.

At times like this, so…

“Never mind that, I need to go to the hospital first, so hurry up and call the insurance company.”

Fortunately, the dizziness subsided somewhat.

“Enough, I need to get to the hospital first, so hurry up and call the insurance company.”

“Call them quickly.”

We don’t need to call 911, right?

Kim Juhyeok looked around at his car.

‘…’

Coincidentally, the car was fine.

Kim Juhyeok looked back at the car.

Only then did the other party reluctantly call their insurance company.

“Ugh. Urgh.”

His neck hurt so much.

Kim Joo-hyuk called the police along with his insurance company employee.

Only then did the other party reluctantly call the insurance company.

Once the police directed traffic, employees from each insurance company appeared, but.

“It’s nothing serious, let’s just settle this! How about 500,000 won? That’s more than enough to fix the license plate, right?”

My throat hurt so much.

I was still dizzy.

Unable to move the car to the shoulder, I sat slumped on the sidewalk, and soon the police arrived.

The police directed traffic and soon employees from various insurance companies appeared, but.

“It’s not a big deal, so let’s just settle this! How about 500,000 won? That should be more than enough to fix the license plate, right?”

“Mister, you’re really bothering a lot of people over something so trivial, aren’t you?”

The driver and his passenger were still being stubborn.

“It’s not the car that’s the problem!”

In the end, Kim Joo-hyuk burst out yelling.

And understood his feelings so very well.

“There won’t be any problems, right?”

At least the insurance company employee where Kim Joo-hyuk had his policy was on his side.

Hwangje Oriental Medicine Hospital Busan Branch. 24-hour hospitalization available.

“Thank you.”

Kim Juhyeok headed straight there.

“There won’t be any problems, right?”

“This is a rear-end collision while stopped at a traffic light. It’s definitely 100% their fault, and I’ve never seen a case like this where personal injury claims weren’t accepted. Don’t worry about it at all.”

And the employee handed over a business card.

So Kim Juhyeok immediately decided to be hospitalized.

If I rest and get treatment for 5 days, I should be fine.

Kim Juhyeok headed straight there.

This was because I had always been positive about traditional Korean medicine treatment, and I had often heard from a friend that when they had an accident, they were treated at a Korean medicine clinic and recovered.

“Oh my, how shocked you must have been! If you can take sick leave, please stay in the hospital for at least 5 days. The aftereffects of an accident can last a long time.”

Both the director and the oriental medicine doctor at the Korean medicine hospital were extremely kind.

So Kim Joo-hyuk decided to be hospitalized right away.

If I rest for 5 days and get treatment, I should be fine.

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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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