After the patient suicide incident, the hospital started reconstructing the outer walls and installing new glass windows. Luckily for the hospital, the patient's family had no interest in suing the hospital. The hospital also didn't punish Ye Jing with the maximum severity. They punished her on the premise that she had indeed tried her best to treat the patient.
Superintendent Ouyang really hated Ye Jing's carefree attitude, and thus felt that this incident was a perfect opportunity to viciously deal with her. Ye Jing had half a year of her bonuses taken away, while all the doctors and nurses on duty that night had three months of their bonuses taken away.
All of these people were also required to write deep self-reflections. Most of the doctors and nurses worked so hard all for the sake of the little bonus money they got. Still, this was already the best possible result. If the patient's family had wanted a reckoning, the punishment would have been far more severe.
Two weeks passed.
Zhang Fan swiftly improved his internal medicine skills in the cardiovascular department. He was basically capable of being an independent resident doctor of internal medicine now. After Ye Jing finished writing her self-reflections, she applied for the maximum allotted amount of vacation time she had, saying that she would resign if her vacation wasn't approved. Superintendent Ouyang gritted her teeth in extreme anger. She approved the vacation only because she knew how hard it was to successfully raise a capable attending physician cardiologist. Had this been a mere resident physician who dared to ask for vacation time right after causing such an incident, Superintendent Ouyang would have long since isolated that person to force them to resign on their own.
Ye Jing was now on vacation, but she still had several patients who were hospitalized. Director Ren Li was about to give those patients over to other doctors, but when she checked on the patients' situation, she found that all of them were in good condition, and could soon leave the hospital.
Director Ren Li started taking an interest in Zhang Fan. Although there were more female than male doctors in the cardiovascular department, men still had an advantage over women in this field due to better strength and stamina. It was known to everyone that Zhang Fan had already passed his medical license examination. He would truly be allowed to become a completely independent doctor once his medical license arrived in March.
An unexpected test! Director Ren Li suddenly held an unannounced test for the three rotation doctors. She personally came up with all the questions for this internal medical exam. The questions ranged from basic to practical, and from simple to complex. There were 20 questions in total. 10 questions only needed short answers, while the other 10 questions required much lengthier ones.
The three rotation doctors were all completely caught off guard by the unexpected test. They had suddenly been called over to the director's office, and were immediately told to take a test upon arrival.
Zhang Fan had grinded internal medicine textbooks so many times already, including the foundational basics. While he hadn't exactly memorized everything, he was now knowledgeable enough to use what he'd learned.
Director Ren Li had been a doctorate degree graduate student whose major was cardiology, and she had now been the director of the cardiovascular department for a bit more than three years. She was highly skilled with the questions she asked. The first three questions tested the rotation doctors on their basic skills, while the following 17 were all about practical skills using examples of real situations. It would be easy to fall into her traps on the test questions.
Zhang Fan had studied quite solidly over the past two weeks. Despite this, there were still several questions he wasn't 100% confident about. This wasn't because Zhang Fan wasn't hardworking. Ren Li was simply that amazing at cardiology. She knew exactly what weaknesses newer doctors would have in cardiology. This test would be an excellent assessment of how excellent and hardworking a new doctor was.
Ren Li gave the three rotation doctors their grades and assessments immediately after they finished the tests. She at least let them save a little face as she informed each rotation doctor individually. Otherwise, things would have been truly awkward for them.
The two female rotation doctors received their assessments before Zhang Fan did. One did alright, while the other female doctor came out of the director's office while crying.
When Zhang Fan entered the director's office, Ren Li immediately asked, "What's the biggest difference between internal medicine and surgery?"
Zhang Fan was quite confused to hear this. It was common sense that internal medicine and surgery were really different medical fields. However, what was the biggest difference supposed to be? Zhang Fan thought it over for a while before he replied, "In internal medicine, most treatments are palliative treatments, while most surgeries treat the foundational cause of the problem."
Ren Li nodded as she then asked, "Are you interested in working in internal medicine? Don't be happy yet, as internal medicine might not even recruit you. I'd just like to know your own interests."
Zhang Fan wasn't happy even in the slightest. He truly had no interest at all in internal medicine. Having to think for so long over a patient's illness and what medicine to use seemed like such a waste of time to him. He far preferred to be direct. Plus, he didn't enjoy the fact that almost all internal medicine patients were elderly.
"I've never considered it before. I've always worked in surgery, and I never worked in internal medicine back when I was an intern," Zhang Fan answered politely with an indirect refusal here, indicating that he wasn't interested in internal medicine.
Ren Li looked over Zhang Fan, and then said, "Alright, go and continue your work then. You're temporarily in charge of Doctor Ye's previous patients. Feel free to help them with hospital discharge procedures if their condition improves enough to leave the hospital."
Actually, Zhang Fan had done a good job on Ren Li's impromptu exam. He reached the standards that she wanted. Not to mention, he was a male doctor, and the cardiovascular department could use more male doctors for heavy work. However, Zhang Fan clearly had no interest in joining the cardiovascular department. Ren Li wasn't the type who would force someone to work for her against their will. The cardiovascular department wasn't that lacking in personnel.
On Friday, Superintendent Ouyang joined the cardiovascular department's morning meeting, a rare occurrence on Fridays. After the morning meeting ended, Superintendent Ouyang told the doctors and head nurse to stay behind for another meeting.
"I received a notification from my own superiors. This weekend, a high-ranked government leader is coming here for a heart health checkup. We must be well-prepared. Nothing unexpected can be allowed to occur. We can't give the government official a bad impression of our hospital," Superintendent Ouyang told everyone. She then added, "This weekend, none of our doctors will be taking the day shifts off. Every single doctor will be on duty for the day shifts. Head nurse, make sure that there's as many highly experienced nurses on duty as possible for the day shifts. Make sure that everything is absolutely sterile and clean. We must all bring out our very best attitudes to treat the government leader."
This government leader was almost about to retire. He was here for a regular heart health checkup. Previously, he'd always gone to Beijing for his heart exams, but now that he was almost about to retire, there was no need to keep his health problems a secret anymore. Thus, he had his secretary notify the Bureau of Public Health as well as Superintendent Ouyang that he would come this weekend.
The cardiovascular department already had many patients to begin with. Now that it was known that they would have to treat a government leader this weekend, there was such a hubbub in the department.
The cardiovascular department hired outside cleaning help to clean the entire department. All water cups and books that were typically left around outside were put away. Any doctors whose white doctor's coats were dirty received a brand-new coat. Previously, all the patient rooms had two beds per room as it was important for cardiovascular department patients to have quiet. However, due to the upcoming arrival of the government leader, a third bed was added to every single patient room, and all the patients in the corridors were stuffed into the rooms. All patients who weren't in too severe a condition were discharged from the hospital.
Even every single glass window was scrubbed clean. About the only thing that wasn't done was giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
The government leader ended up arriving on Sunday afternoon. He was accompanied by the director of the Bureau of Public Health, Superintendent Ouyang, and Chasu City Hospital's vice superintendents. They all arrived at the cardiovascular department in such a large group.
Director Ren Li brought out all the department doctors to greet the leaders in unison. The government leader turned out to be a member of the Standing Committee, which meant that he was really high-ranking.
The government leader gave a short and simple speech, recognizing the hard work of the hospital's leaders, along with praising the medical level of Chasu City Hospital's doctors. He even shook hands with every single doctor. Director Ren Li then personally performed all the necessary heart examinations for him, including electrocardiogram, cardiac treadmill test, and every other small heart test possible.
The government leader didn't have a severe problem with his heart. All he had was some slight arrhythmia. Ren Li looked over the Beijing hospital's proposed treatment plan for the government leader, and didn't modify it one bit. The previously proposed treatment plan was quite excellent, and needed no modifications at all.
All of this took about an hour and a half. After the government leader's heart exams were over, Superintendent Ouyang personally accompanied him out of the hospital.
The government leader had required nothing more than a simple checkup, yet his pending arrival had caused the entire cardiovascular department to be tense for two whole days. All the doctors and nurses in the department had been incredibly busy as if they had to prepare for war. Did they have complaints? Of course they did. But, would they dare to complain? Of course not. The moment any of them complained, it was likely that Director Ren Li and Superintendent Ouyang would learn of the complaints.
Zhang Fan had truly gone through a lot recently. If it weren't for his System's buffs to his stamina, he would have collapsed from fatigue long ago. This was also because Kuake City Hospital's director of general surgery had been giving Zhang Fan several appendectomies and gall bladder surgeries to perform.
Kuake City Hospital's director of general surgery had been in his position for quite a long while. Since Zhang Fan wasn't an independent doctor yet, the director would pay him only a regular amount for each surgery, a lot less than what Shi Lei paid Zhang Fan. Still, the director helped put Zhang Fan in touch with several other directors of general surgery at other small city hospitals.
Zhang Fan thus had to go to other city hospitals to help with surgeries once every three, four days on average. He was incredibly busy with work at the cardiovascular department, he still needed to study medical textbooks at night, and he was occasionally driving to other city hospitals to perform surgeries. Although this helped to improve his income by a decent amount, Zhang Fan had gotten noticeably skinnier.
Li Xiao's third massage treatment schedule was also about to begin. When her first two massage treatments were finished, Li Xiao had especially gone back to her previous bigger and better city hospital to have another checkup on her back. She then had the data compared from before and after the massage treatments. The results were quite nice! There was evidence that her back was being restored to proper alignment.
Her doctor was really curious, and kept asking Li Xiao what type of treatment she had received. Of course, Li Xiao refused to tell her doctor. She considered Zhang Fan her secret weapon.
Zhang Fan's massage treatment for Shao Hua's mother also ended. The effects were wonderful. Shao Hua's mother tried to give Zhang Fan a red packet after the treatment ended, but Zhang Fan absolutely refused to take it. However, he found it a difficult problem to think of how he could see Shao Hua again in the future now that her mother was cured.