Merchant and doctor

Chapter 2007: Opening a small hospital is quite difficult.

Most of the traditional Chinese medicine clinics in Lijin City do not have inpatient departments. There is no other reason than that it would be too costly, involve too much responsibility, be too troublesome and uneconomical, so no one wants to get involved.

The traditional Chinese medicine clinic run by the Nie family does have an observation room, which shows they are doing their best for some patients. If hospitalization for observation or treatment is really necessary, they can only recommend hospitals that they deem suitable. The subsequent treatment can only be discussed. Some hospitals have signed certain agreements with the Nie family, which constitute a cooperative medical relationship. Overall, the comprehensive treatment effect is quite good.

In recent years, Nie Yixiong has gotten quite old, and such collaborations have gradually faded away.

After Pang Yuxi resigned, the scale of Nie Family Medical Clinic's operations shrank significantly, and most of the joint medical agreements expired, so the Nie family gradually withdrew from this area.

Recently, Nie Family Clinic has been declining the hospitalization requests of some patients who require observation or treatment.

The same was true for the Cen Family Clinic, where almost all cooperative medical care was suspended, and the Cen Family Clinic had to share some of the corresponding losses.

As for other medical clinics, Bian Mu's knowledge was limited, so he naturally knew very little about them.

To be fair, Bian Mu is willing to treat patients who need hospitalization for observation and treatment. This would make his medical career complete and improve his medical skills. However... so far, Bian Mu does not intend to take the cooperative medical care route. The reason is that the division of responsibility is a big problem. It's fine if the patient is discharged smoothly, everyone is happy. But if any medical disputes arise in the middle, Bian Mu was the one who signed the bill and sent the patient there in the first place, so he will definitely not be able to escape that responsibility.

Given Bian Mu's current overall strength, he is completely unable to bear all the consequences arising from this, which mainly involve compensation.

Therefore, he always refused anyone who came to discuss cooperation matters.

Chen Yueqing owns a large medical clinic with complete facilities and a full complement of medical staff. In Lijin City, you can't find another medical clinic inside a typical business company. Bian Mu has never been able to figure out what Chen Yueqing was thinking back then.

Seeing that the "New Concept" Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic branch had already opened, and that the wooden signboard used by the clinic was made by skilled craftsmen at Chen Yueqing's request, Chen Yueqing made a special trip to visit Bian Mu a few days ago and explicitly offered to give away that large medical room that always seemed strange to Bian Mu for free. He suggested that Bian Mu convert it into a temporary inpatient department of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, so that Bian Mu's Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic could be considered to have a complete structure and would also generate additional revenue.

As for the medical staff in the large medical room, Bian Mu will renew their contracts if they are suitable, and if not, Chen Yueqing will dismiss them according to the "N+X" normal procedures stipulated by the relevant departments.

Bian Mu immediately refused. Bian Mu thought that Chen Yueqing was really getting old and his mind was getting a little slow, that he could come up with such an absurd idea.

Unexpectedly, Wen Boyong, acting as an intermediary, directly "invited" Dean Zheng to the clinic. Without saying a word, he started discussing cooperative medical care, which was quite a significant matter in terms of scale.

Based on his intuition, Bian Mu felt that these two industry veterans were planning to "pass the buck".

Without changing his expression, Bian Mu asked with a smile, "Dean Zheng! If I may be so bold as to ask, as far as I know, a decent private TCM orthopedic hospital would be lucky to have 200 beds! How come your orthopedic branch has 400 beds?! I grew up in a small county town and haven't seen much of the world. If it's convenient, please enlighten me!" Bian Mu's words were somewhat evasive, but he was genuinely very curious. If he could get a clear answer, it would be a great inspiration for him when he opened his own specialized hospital in the future.

"Sigh! It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but back when the market was good, I couldn't resist my greed and overexpanded! Now look what's happened, we're losing money every month, and if this continues, we might have to close down!" At this point, Dean Zheng couldn't help but sigh a few times.

"Back then, the orthopedic hospital that Zheng Yuan and his team started relied on Lijin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a bone injury research institute whose name I can't recall. They also signed joint medical agreements with several public hospitals. Old Zheng! Back then, a lot of the cutting-edge equipment was bought with loans, right?! That's right... I remember, some of the equipment was even better than what public hospitals had! They dared to take on difficult and complicated cases. With expert professors setting up departments to provide consultations, there was really nothing to worry about. Back then, orthopedic beds in major hospitals were extremely scarce! With cooperative medical care, the hardware facilities were just as good as our hospital. The surrounding environment was also very quiet and pleasant. With normal medical insurance coverage, all the miscellaneous costs were even cheaper than public hospitals. With expert professors coming to endorse them, there was naturally no shortage of patients. I remember... for a while, it was actually difficult to get a bed at Zheng Yuan's hospital, right?" Wen Boyong's eloquence allowed him to clearly describe the prosperity of the orthopedic branch in just a few words.

"That's for sure! Experts and professors are the hard criteria, and the key is that all the medical staff we recruited back then were regular medical school graduates, and they were all selected based on merit. It's only been a few years... Sigh... As the old experts and doctors retired one after another, some even passed away, and others were hired by hospitals in other places after retirement, in short, all sorts of problems arose. It's also my fault. At that time, I never had the idea of ​​carefully cultivating the backbone of our own hospital. I was blinded by the grand occasion and confusedly missed the best golden period..." Dean Zheng took over the conversation with a frustrated expression and sighed for a few moments.

Hearing this, Bian Mu couldn't help but curl his lips. To be honest, he only believed about 40% of the so-called inside story told by these two seniors. In any case, he had doubts about the majority of it.

The current Bian Mu is no longer the naive young doctor who had just entered the city and had never seen much of the world. Not only is he knowledgeable, but more importantly, his understanding of the entire Lijin medical industry is much deeper, far exceeding the expectations of the two old deans, Wen and Zheng.

At this moment, Bian Mu still believed that the two people in front of him were trying to "pass the buck"!

With a slight smile, Bian Mu echoed, "I see... I've learned something! Well... I've heard that proctology hospitals never lose money, so where did your hospital suffer this loss?!"

"Sigh! It's embarrassing to admit! I used to be a dentist. My initial idea was to run a small business, slightly larger than a dental clinic, doing things honestly. The repeat customers alone would have been enough to support my family. But I was greedy. I ended up teaming up with a senior from a different department at the same university who was an expert in anorectal surgery. He was an amazing surgeon! Like you, he developed a set of minimally invasive surgical procedures similar to the PPH system—low cost, fast healing, low recurrence rate… At the time, he only had three students who were devoted to starting the business with him. They had no space, no money. Later, through an introduction, they came to me. I was also a bit confused and inexplicably abandoned my dental profession to partner with him in opening this specialized hospital. At first…" He was truly capable, incredibly innovative, and exceptionally quick-witted. He was also a first-rate businessman; we broke even in the second year. At the time, we were the only ones in the entire city who could achieve that. Then… I was blinded by greed, constantly expanding the hospital's scale, repeatedly changing locations and renting buildings. I believed his then-popular concept of "large specialized departments, small general departments," and kept adding adjacent departments. Later, we even started offering traditional Chinese medicine massage, taking out loans to buy a lot of equipment. Then… he suddenly quit, taking his team and leaving me without saying goodbye, leaving me with a mess… So…” Perhaps he had said too much, because Dean Zheng was a little thirsty, so he poured himself a bowl of water and drank a few sips.

Bian Mu rolled his eyes and glanced at Dean Zheng a few times. To be honest, Bian Mu didn't believe even 30% of what he said!