Chapter 198: Headhunting

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Since Zhang Fan had promised Ma Wentao to help recruit medical staff for the latter’s hospital, he would try his best to live up to the promise. However, hiring talented medical staff really wouldn’t be that easy. While there were plenty of fresh graduates available to hire, it would take at least five years for a fresh graduate to gain enough experience to be able to independently work by themselves. Even then, they would only be able to deal with patients who had common illnesses. A doctor with only five years of experience wouldn’t be able to handle a patient who had a rare illness or was in a severe condition.

In order to find enough medical staff for an entirely new hospital, there would be several methods. The first method would be to recruit the leading medical staff, such as hiring the directors of each department. Then, the directors could help recruit ordinary doctors to staff their respective departments. The advantage of this method would be quite obvious. The hospital departments would be able to open as soon as there was a department director. The disadvantage would also be quite obvious. The hospital boss would become restrained by the department directors. If the directors could no longer be satisfied by their current salaries, then they would simply leave, causing their respective hospital departments to entirely shut down again.

A second method for finding medical staff would be to establish a collaboration agreement with a nearby public hospital. The advantage of this was that the new hospital could also treat various patients together with the public hospital. The disadvantage here was again quite obvious. If you didn’t have good enough conditions or didn’t offer enough benefits, the agreement could fall through at any time. Such an agreement usually wouldn’t even rely on contracts, as it would be more about a verbal agreement with the public hospital’s superintendent.

A third method would be to use mergers. The hospital could spend some money and use connections to buy out nearby smaller hospitals, such as a mine hospital specialized in treating mine workers, or a smaller school’s hospital and so on. This would allow the new hospital to obtain all the staff of the smaller hospitals. The advantage of this would be that the medical staff would all know what to do already. The disadvantage of this was that medical staff at smaller hospitals would only know how to treat the more common illnesses.

The best method of all would be to raise one’s own doctors. This would cost the most money as well as time, and had the highest rate of failure. However, this method would usually bring about the best results. As long as one’s own doctors became skilled enough to be independent, it would be highly difficult for other hospitals to poach a doctor that you’d personally raised.

Zhang Fan’s method of recruiting medical staff for Ma Wentao’s new hospital was quite simple. He decided to ask the doctors at the smaller hospitals that he was invited over for surgeries to.

The reasons for doctors to remain at smaller hospitals would be quite simple. One, maybe the doctor’s academic qualifications weren’t good enough. Two, maybe the doctor didn’t have good enough medical skills. Three, because of family-related matters.

There was severe urban migration in modern China. Those who were even slightly skilled wouldn’t want to stay in villages and smaller cities. They would want to go to bigger cities for better opportunities.

This caused higher-quality medical treatment and education to become more and more centered only in larger cities. Just a few decades ago, just about every village would have its own elementary school, but now, things had regressed to the point where there was on average only one elementary school for more than a dozen villages. The teachers at such village schools wouldn’t even care that much about the quality of their teaching. Instead, the village school teachers would mostly think about how they could get transferred to a bigger city. So, this was all a chance.

Well, Zhang Fan wasn’t someone who had the mind to worry about national affairs. He simply wanted to ask the smaller city hospitals’ doctors to see if they were interested.

For Zhang Fan’s first stop, of course he would go to Kuake City Hospital. Zhang Fan paid Kuake City Hospital a visit, fully intending on poaching doctors from the new Superintendent Shi Lei. Former Superintendent Zou had pretended to be unconscious during a time of crisis in order to avoid responsibility, so he was fired, and Shi Lei unexpectedly received the superintendent’s position. In just a few weeks since becoming superintendent, the formerly skinny surgeon had become noticeably plumper. This was all due to the benefits brought about by his new position. Zhang Fan barely dared to believe someone as cautious as Shi Lei had transformed into someone so frank!

Kuake City Hospital had also happened to invite Zhang Fan over this weekend to perform a surgery. Former Superintendent Zou had really been a strange one. Even though he was a superintendent, he only cared about embezzling as much money in small amounts as he possibly could. It wasn’t like a hospital was a place to scam others. A hospital would rely on reputation in order to make money, not authority!

“Director Zhang, haha! It’s been such a long time since you last came here for a surgery! Tonight, you must get drunk with me before you leave. We’re both originally from Kuake City Hospital’s surgical department #2. In the future, you must help me out. Don’t worry about getting paid. I definitely will make sure to treat you well.” Shi Lei summoned Zhang Fan over to his superintendent’s office after Zhang Fan finished the surgery that he came over to do. The two of them were now chatting together.

Shi Lei originally was someone who smoked a brand of cigarettes that only cost 10 yuan, but now he had changed to smoking 30 yuan cigarettes. He tossed a cigarette over to Zhang Fan. Since Zhang Fan was here with a request to make, Zhang Fan accepted.

“Superintendent Shi, the entire hospital seems different now that you’re in charge. It’s all because of your skills!” Zhang Fan praised Shi Lei a bit while lighting up the cigarette. Zhang Fan already knew who he wanted to headhunt at Kuake City Hospital: Ye Bo from surgical department #2, Wang Sha from pediatrics, who was also Li Hui’s ex-girlfriend, and the director of surgical department #1.

Ye Bo and Wang Sha definitely wouldn’t stay for much longer at Kuake City Hospital. Both of them were married to someone else now. Ye Bo’s wife and Wang Sha would need to think about having children soon. Once their children were older, the parents would definitely be trying to go to the bigger Chasu City. Both Ye Bo’s and Wang Sha’s academic qualifications were good enough. They were also definitely both hardworking. Meanwhile, the director of surgical department #1 was in a period of his life where he really lacked money. Kuake City Hospital wouldn’t be enough to support him. Rather than letting him be poached by another hospital, Zhang Fan figured he might as well do it himself.

“Sigh! You really do know what to say. Back when Superintendent Batu was around, he treated you as his favorite. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to say a bad thing about you. When Old Zou came here, you tested into Chasu City Hospital. Now that your old bro is in charge here, how about you come help me out? I’ll directly make you the vice superintendent.” Shi Lei was trying to establish a firmer connection with Zhang Fan here. The two of them were both originally part of Batu’s faction. Shi Lei now had to develop Kuake City Hospital, which wouldn’t be possible without a highly skilled surgeon’s help.

As for offering Zhang Fan the position of vice superintendent? Shi Lei was simply saying it for show. Even the superintendent wouldn’t have the authority to determine who could be vice superintendent, as that was a matter for the city’s Communist Party Committee. Shi Lei also knew that Zhang Fan wouldn’t be coming back, so it was just a small joke.

“You’re just joking with me! Sigh, if only I had your skills, bro. I only know how to perform surgery. Administration work is for the really smart people!” Zhang Fan was speaking in a rather roundabout manner. He felt that it wasn’t time to reveal his real intention quite yet.

“I know that Kuake City Hospital’s medical level is too low to keep a dragon like you around. But honestly, you should help me out. You know that Chen Qifa has left already together with his disciple Li Liang. Surgical department #2’s orthopedics is completely useless now. The remaining doctors are incapable of even doing simple limb fixation. All the staff still remaining are really worried. You have to help me out with some ideas here.”

“I do have ideas, but it will depend on what you think, bro.”Read the next chapter on our

“Tell me first. I’m listening.” Shi Lei was quite smart, and made no promises beforehand. Additionally, he knew already that Chen Qifa and Li Liang were closely connected to Zhang Fan. Shi Lei instantly knew that Zhang Fan’s idea was probably nothing good for him.

“Just look, the recent graduates from my group have either left already or are getting married and having children soon already. It will probably happen by next year. Kuake City Hospital is also in a period where many people are quitting, don’t you agree?”

“You think people can leave so easily without me releasing their documents?” Shi Lei sat up straight while saying this. This was something that he had to view with great importance as the new superintendent. Those from Zhang Fan’s original group who still remained had already become skilled enough to become independent elites in their respective departments. Although one of them leaving wouldn’t be enough for a department to close down entirely, it would still really hurt 1.

“Bro, that’s just an empty threat. Such documents aren’t needed if they go to work for a private hospital instead. Besides, if they really do go to a higher-level hospital, do you really think that you’d be able to just hold on to their documents forever?”

“Then go ahead and say what you’re thinking.”

“This year, Kuake City Hospital will hire a large number of people and train them. If you hire 20 people, probably at least five or six will stay here permanently, right?” Zhang Fan asked.

“Yes, but the number of training spots at each hospital is limited. Even Chasu City Hospital will have a limited number of spots, so there’s even fewer training spots open in smaller hospitals,” Shi Lei said while thinking about what Zhang Fan actually wanted. However, he would never believe that Zhang Fan was truly thinking about something that would help him out.

Although Shi Lei and Zhang Fan hadn’t been coworkers in the same surgical department for long, Shi Lei understood Zhang Fan quite well. Shi Lei knew that Zhang Fan was the type of person who was completely obsessed only with surgery. Back at Kuake City Hospital, it was the more skilled personnel who had been on good terms with Zhang Fan!

“I’ll help you deal with the training!” Zhang Fan offered.

“You’re not here to try and scam your old bro, are you? Will that personnel really come back to me if I give them over to you? I bet that none of them will be returning. Let’s just forget about it! You might as well just take your surgery fee and go back to Chasu City now! I’ll invite you over again next time there’s a surgery for you!” Shi Lei decided to stop this conversation right here!

“Superintendent Shi, please sit down and listen to me finish.”

“Alright, I’ll give you face, Director Zhang. But, don’t even think about trying to poach my personnel!”

“Just think about it. If they really want to leave, can you really stop them? You can’t stop them at all. At most, you can make it more difficult for them to leave. As for me, I’m really not trying to poach future personnel that you train for Kuake City Hospital. Do you know about the private hospital that Chen Qifa currently works at?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. It’s the one right next door to Chasu City Women and Children’s Hospital, right? Though I really am curious. Chasu City Women and Children’s Hospital really is willing to be so generous in sharing medical equipment and resources with that hospital?” Shi Lei even edged closer to Zhang Fan. Shi Lei was someone whose curiosity far exceeded his professionalism.

“Bro, you’re a leader now as well. Do you really need me to explain something so simple?”

“Oh! I understand, I understand!” Shi Lei then pointed upwards, indicating that it was about some type of agreement between those in charge at the respective hospitals.

“You see, bro, that private hospital that Chen Qifa works at has almost exclusively expert doctors invited over from Raptor City. Those doctors are real experts in their fields. Even in Raptor City, they’d be the teaching doctors to doctorate and master’s degree students. Right now, this new private hospital isn’t that famous yet. You can take advantage of this before they become famous and immediately send people to study programs there. Kuake City Hospital has so many young and inexperienced doctors now. You could send three doctors per department, and at least some doctors will definitely learn plenty and become skilled themselves!”

“But, the problem is that my doctors might not come back to Kuake City Hospital afterwards,” Shi Lei said while furrowing his eyebrows.

“You know about the current trend in China’s medical field, right? Hospitals are requiring more and more from doctors’ academic qualifications. Chasu City Hospital no longer even hires undergraduate medical students anymore. Besides, the private hospital that Chen Qifa works at can’t afford to hire so many people. Where else are your doctors going to go if not back to Kuake City Hospital?”

“They might go to other private hospitals or slightly larger hospitals in Chasu City,” Shi Lei answered rather unwillingly.

“Even you’re not believing what you’re saying here. Go work at a Fujianese private hospital? Here as locals in the border province? How embarrassing would that be? They definitely wouldn’t go to a private hospital. Additionally, the other hospitals in Chasu City have clear recruitment requirements. They’re not even hiring doctors lower in rank than attending physician right now. So, where do you think your doctors can even go?”

“I suppose so. Then say it. You’ve been talking for quite a while, so what do you want?”

“I’d like to take three people from Kuake City Hospital to work with me!”

“Ye Bo and Director Yu? Who else?” Shi Lei correctly guessed two out of the three.

“Wang Sha!”

“Hey! You really are quite vicious! You just want me to close this hospital, don’t you!” Shi Lei inhaled a cold breath.

“I don’t need them to go with me right now. It can be a gradual process. First, I’ll help you to set up study programs at the private hospital. Once your personnel is well trained, then you can let them leave. At that time, you better keep your word and let them go without a fight!”

“Just what are you up to? You’re working at so many different hospitals for surgery that all of Chasu City’s medical society knows who you are by now. Additionally, you’re even beginning to headhunt doctors? What, are you going to start your own hospital? I’m really wondering how a youngster like you can have such deep thoughts!”

“Haha! You’re overthinking things, bro. I’m just helping someone else out here, and earning some money through hard work!”

Shi Lei instantly understood after Zhang Fan said that. “You’re becoming a stockholder in a new hospital because of your skills?”

“Yep!” Zhang Fan had to explain things clearly to Shi Lei. Otherwise, Shi Lei could hold on to his employees’ documents and refuse to let them leave, which would be rather troublesome.

“That’s really quite something! You only graduated a few years ago, but now you’re famous and rich! I truly am so envious. Okay, I’ll agree to what you say, but I do have a small request!”

“Please don’t make things difficult for me, bro!” Zhang Fan was now someone who had the right to haggle with Shi Lei.

“Just look at what you’re saying. Have I ever made things difficult for you before, from the time that you were at Kuake City Hospital, all the way to when you left for Chasu City Hospital? I’ve always been taking good care of you, right? I’m even paying a surgery fee to you based on the highest payment scale today. You should be happy. My request really is a small matter. I’d just like for you to invite the real boss of the private hospital that Chen Qifa works at for a meal sometime with me. I’ll host and pay for the meal, and we can finalize things then.”

“Not a problem. That’s easy to do. Feel free to call me at any time that you’re coming to Chasu City. I’ll treat you as long as I’m not at work!”

“Brothers like us don’t need to worry about such things. Alright. Feel free to go talk to the three that you want to recruit. Whether or not you can convince them to go with you will depend on your own abilities!”