CHAPTER 353: 329 NEVER FORGET THE ORIGINAL INTENTION

Despite being exasperated with the newcomers’ specialized but narrow skills, training for them began from scratch after consulting their opinions.

Otherwise, Du Heng and his team would have to recruit or ask the Bureau to transfer an acupuncturist.

But to be honest, certified acupuncturists are in high demand even in large hospitals, so how could one possibly be allocated to a mere health clinic?

Moreover, wouldn’t opening their own Acupuncture Hall or Physiotherapy Pavillion earn them more money than working in a health clinic?

Luckily, both of them were ambitious and recognized the prospects of the Health Clinic, so they were willing to be trained by Du Heng and Wu Buwei.

After all, learning new skills would not only improve their competitiveness but also increase their income.

Currently, a single treatment session for a patient costs 50 yuan. These patients typically stay for two to three weeks. The Health Clinic now accommodates 31 traditional Chinese medicine patients, in addition to the ten beds reserved for Western medicine.

In the recently passed July, Wu Buwei’s salary, combined with treatment fees and bonuses, actually surpassed the 10,000 yuan mark, which naturally made the other three envious.

Even at the affluent health clinics in the High-tech Zone, a monthly income of 10,000 yuan was enough to make them green with envy.

Looking at the long list of scheduled appointments and the red-brick building already undergoing renovation, they felt no resistance to such training; on the contrary, they were brimming with enthusiasm.

While Du Heng was dealing with business matters, Lu Zhongjiang was in charge of logistics.

His shoes were speckled with white paint, and his trouser cuffs were damp and stained, yet Lu Zhongjiang’s face was all smiles. He looked particularly energetic, the grin at the corners of his lips entirely genuine.

After sorting out the recent financial accounts at the Health Clinic, Du Heng smiled and said, "Secretary, sit down and rest. You don’t need to keep running over to the building next door. Just let them handle the renovation themselves. Looking at you, anyone who didn’t know better would think you were doing the renovation yourself."

These words did not diminish Lu Zhongjiang’s joy. "I can’t help but worry. If no one’s watching them for even a moment, they’ll cut corners and do a shoddy job."

Du Heng chuckled as well. After finishing his work, he got up, took a teacup, and helped fill it.

Watching Du Heng pour water for him, Lu Zhongjiang didn’t refuse and instead asked, "Dean, I heard the District Hospital approached you?"

"Yeah, that did happen." Du Heng put the cup down and sat close to Lu Zhongjiang.

Lu Zhongjiang chuckled and asked, "What did they offer?"

"Director of the Chinese Medicine Health Care Department," Du Heng replied casually.

"They certainly have a lot of nerve." Lu Zhongjiang showed a hint of disdain.

Du Heng was currently the Dean. After the Health Clinic’s upgrade and the subsequent evaluation period, it wouldn’t just be spinning its wheels as a First-level Institution; it would directly advance to the second level. At that point, it would, at most, be only half a grade lower than the current District Hospital.

Why should Du Heng go there and be an unwelcome Department Director? Are they out of their minds?

Lu Zhongjiang’s smile turned playful. "These people are too greedy. They want to occupy the position you’d leave behind but are unwilling to invest properly. It must have been difficult for them to concoct such an offer."

"Never mind, they just mentioned it casually; they weren’t serious."

"These people are scheming yet blind. Don’t they know that the development of the Health Clinic depends entirely on your hard work?" Lu Zhongjiang couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "If you were to leave, the Health Clinic would revert to its original state in minutes, and then what would they have to show for it?"

Du Heng waved his hand. "Alright, Secretary Lu, let’s not talk about them. I wanted to discuss something with you today."

Lu Zhongjiang readily agreed, "Go ahead."

"Our current patient source relies entirely on word-of-mouth, on patients spreading the news to one another," Du Heng said solemnly, his speaking pace slowing. "Accumulating patient sources this way is too slow and also very unstable."

Lu Zhongjiang also became serious. Feeling the cool breeze from the air conditioner, he replied in the same tone, "I’ve considered this problem too, but I don’t fully understand the operational details of your frontline work, so I haven’t rashly offered any suggestions. Now that you’ve brought it up, do you have any ideas?"

Du Heng nodded. "I want to talk to Municipal First Hospital, Provincial First Hospital, and the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, asking them to refer stroke patients to us."

After a brief pause, he continued, "Previously, we had limited space. Even if we attracted a large number of patient sources, we wouldn’t have been able to manage them. That’s why I kept this idea to myself and never proposed it.

"But now that the red-brick building renovation has begun, apart from the essential departments, we can convert the remaining two buildings entirely into hospital rooms. This would increase our bed capacity to 120. This will not only meet the upgrade requirements but also accommodate more patients.

"Furthermore, with the support funds from the Bureau, we won’t be as constrained in hiring staff as we were before."

Listening to Du Heng’s words, Lu Zhongjiang fell into deep thought.

After a long time, he said, "In the past, patients were always transferred from lower-level hospitals to higher-level hospitals. They might be reluctant to suddenly reverse the process."

"I’ve talked to Director Zhou Yixian from Municipal First Hospital and Director Li Jianwei from Provincial First Hospital about this recently," Du Heng slowly recounted his work during this period.

While Lu Zhongjiang took care of logistics and construction, Du Heng hadn’t been idle either; he had also made his own contributions regarding the Health Clinic’s business development.

"Director Zhou Yixian was quite supportive, and he has the easiest access to stroke patients. Now, it’s just a matter of discussing some specific details.

"The problem now is that the situation at Provincial First Hospital is more complicated. Director Li Jianwei agreed with my proposal, but he also has conditions. He insists that the relevant treatments must be carried out in their Chinese Medicine Department, and they will assign me a dedicated team specifically for this purpose."

Lu Zhongjiang’s brow slowly furrowed, forming deep vertical lines between his eyebrows. "This isn’t right; there are contradictions here. If they intend to carry out these treatments themselves, then there’s no role for us. If they transfer patients to us, then there’s no role for them. This doesn’t add up; it’s not right."

Du Heng shared the sentiment. "I have the same thought. Doing it this way is too contradictory. That’s why I wanted to discuss with you, Secretary, whether we should collaborate with them and if such a collaboration would ultimately benefit us."

Lu Zhongjiang fell silent, quickly weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

The Chinese Medicine Department at Provincial First Hospital is relatively weak, but their infrastructure is excellent, and they have many beds.

If we collaborate with them, we’d likely have to fill their beds first before they’d refer any patient sources to our Health Clinic. But how is that possible?

After a while, Lu Zhongjiang tentatively asked, "Is there no other way?"

"There is."

Du Heng sighed. "That means not collaborating. I would continue to only conduct outpatient consultations one day a week and not get involved with their hospital rooms."

"Will that offend Director Li and the others?" Lu Zhongjiang asked worriedly.

"No, everyone knows that if we collaborate, our Health Clinic would mostly gain nominal benefits—a prestigious title—but no tangible advantages."

Lu Zhongjiang fell silent again for a moment. "Then if we do collaborate, I mean, even if they don’t send us patients, what role would you play there?"

"We didn’t discuss it in detail, but it would likely involve holding outpatient consultations in the morning and visiting the hospital rooms in the afternoon. I can’t spend too much time there; it mustn’t affect the primary operations of our Health Clinic."

Lu Zhongjiang let out a long breath. "Dean, I think we can cooperate with them. Just for the association and the prestige of ’cooperating with Provincial First Hospital,’ even if we don’t get any patients from it, we should still proceed with the collaboration."

"Why?" Du Heng asked curiously, knowing that such cooperation would yield them no tangible benefits.

"Dean, what are we? We’re a First-level health clinic. Regardless of anything else, the Chinese Medicine Department of Provincial First Hospital is a department within a Grade 3A hospital. The difference in our status and reputation is like heaven and earth. Under normal circumstances, if Provincial First Hospital so much as breaks wind, patients would probably think it smells sweeter than the finest cake from our Health Clinic. This is the benefit of intangible reputation. And if we collaborate with Provincial First Hospital, it will be an absolute qualitative leap for our reputation. As positive word-of-mouth spreads, we can definitely convert many previously hesitant patients into our actual patients."

Du Heng understood. This was about looking at the long-term rather than immediate gains.

Lu Zhongjiang summarized, "I think, as long as your time isn’t largely taken up by them, direct cooperation is completely feasible. They gain tangible benefits, we gain reputation—it’s a win-win situation."

After Lu Zhongjiang finished speaking, Du Heng suddenly sighed. "Sigh, if only we could advertise, that would be wonderful. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about the problem of patient sources."

Hearing this, Lu Zhongjiang laughed. "With your abilities, Dean, if you were to open your own clinic or go to a private hospital and advertise a bit, wouldn’t you be swamped with patients?"

Unexpectedly, Du Heng shook his head. "That wouldn’t work. I’m developing Zhonghu Health Center precisely to better serve the ordinary people of Central Lake, to ensure everyone has a place where they can see a doctor and receive treatment, without having to fear being unable to afford hospitalization due to fees of 3,000 or 5,000 yuan."

Hearing Du Heng say this, Lu Zhongjiang also sighed. "Yes, our three-level referral system was originally a good thing. But look at the District Hospital now—they dare to treat all sorts of illnesses, major or minor, themselves, and just refuse to transfer patients. Isn’t this absurd? Take the patient who came the day before yesterday. The District Hospital treated their lumbar slipping, but now the patient is suffering from back and leg pain. Who are you going to hold accountable for that?"

Du Heng knew which patient Lu Zhongjiang was referring to and sighed quietly. "When our local farmers here seek medical attention, if the Health Clinic can’t treat them, they’re referred to the District Hospital. Only if the District Hospital can’t handle it will they be transferred to other Grade 3A hospitals. But now, the District Hospital’s way of doing things is too much to bear. We’ve already had several such patients from our township.

"That’s why I must develop our Health Clinic. Once it’s a second-level institution, on par with the District Hospital, I can directly issue referrals to Grade 3A hospitals, completely bypassing the District Hospital. Aren’t they the ones always complaining that transfer procedures are too troublesome, that medical insurance calculations are a hassle, and that it’s not profitable? Fine, I just won’t use them anymore."