Chapter 198 - Headhunting (1/2)
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.”
”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!