Chapter 463: Unspoken Rules of Hospital Politics

There’s an unwritten rule among doctors: never criticize another doctor’s decisions behind their back. Especially never stir up trouble in front of patients or their families.

Sure, it might make you look clever in the moment, but you’ll be in for a world of headaches afterward.

If the doctor you criticized is a colleague from your own hospital, at the very least you’ll make an enemy.

Some department heads are fiercely protective. They’ll go straight to your own chief or to management demanding an explanation.

Once it gets to that point, even if your chief covers for you, people start to distance themselves. Odds are, your career at that hospital is as good as over.

Forget promotions or raises. There’s a good chance you won’t even keep your job.

It’s only a matter of time before you have to leave.

No exaggeration—there are way too many real-life cases like this.

Some doctors love stepping on others in front of patients, trying to look superior and show off their own skills. Ironically, these folks usually aren’t that great at medicine—or at being a decent person.

Doctors who really have skills don’t need to put down their peers to prove their worth.

At most, they’ll mention casually to their students later, ‘That last surgery was a little sloppy,’ or ‘The previous doctor seemed a bit careless.’

But to gossip in front of patients? That’s a huge no-go.

Now, when Director Xueyan wants to publicize that heart failure case with the infant, it’s basically a move to lift herself up at Third Hospital’s expense.

Still, this sort of thing is completely different from badmouthing other doctors in front of patients.

Behind the scenes, Third Hospital has thrown a lot of mud at Tuyu’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Department.

Especially right after Dr. Hu Kan passed away, Third Hospital and others spread the news everywhere, stopping just short of outright declaring Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tuyu Hospital was finished.

And when Director Xueyan later failed at that high-profile cardiac surgery and the patient died on the table, Third Hospital fueled the gossip again, pushing the story until everyone in the field knew.

And their sneaky sabotage against Tuyu Hospital didn’t stop there, either.

But Third Hospital is clever—they never do dirty work openly. At most, they set traps in the shadows, playing some underhanded tricks.

Who knows if Xinxiang Hospital or the Provincial People’s Hospital has been meddling behind the scenes too.

Xinxiang Hospital especially is ambitious. They have worked openly with Tuyu before, but if you expect them to be grateful or at least not kick you when you’re down, you’re dreaming.

When a hospital’s future and major interests are at stake, Tuyu’s past kindness to them means nothing.

Back when Tuyu sent the first batch of doctors to Xinxiang Hospital for consultations, their own director tried to recruit Zhou Can directly.

Just goes to show, compared to personal interests, everything else is insignificant.

“Sis Yan, do you really hate Third Hospital that much?”

Zhou Can didn’t answer directly; instead, he threw the question back.

“A bit! They haven’t stayed in their lane at all this past year. Whenever they get a chance, they trample our Cardiothoracic Surgery Department. This time, I do want to give them a taste of their own medicine.” Director Xueyan never bothered to hide anything when talking to him.

People say women hold grudges, and there’s definitely some truth to it.

“If you really want payback, I suggest we play the victim when publicizing the case. The smart way is to put on a virtuous mask—let’s promote only the medical condition, not mention Third Hospital by name, even ‘generously’ keep quiet about the child previously being treated there. Once our story takes off, someone can ‘accidentally’ reveal that the infant had surgery at Third Hospital and developed serious post-op complications they couldn’t handle. That way, we come out looking spotless, and Third Hospital will be left swallowing their bitterness.”

Zhou Can isn’t one for scheming.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t do it.

If he wanted to play mind games, the decision-makers at Third Hospital would have to call him big bro.

“That’s ruthless and brilliant! Zhou Can, you’ve really nailed it. We’ll do exactly as you said!” Director Xueyan’s eyes sparkled, excitement lighting up her face.

Finally being able to put Third Hospital in their place was more than enough to help her vent her frustrations.

This past year, she’s endured slander, pressure, and all kinds of attacks from outside hospitals. She’s resented it for ages—now it was time to let it out.

With revenge finally in sight, she could barely hide her excitement.

“A really skilled hunter often appears like prey. If we want to ruin Third Hospital’s reputation, we need to play the innocent. No one can know it was us who leaked the truth. Otherwise, the public will see it as a nasty feud. But if we act clueless, even defending Third Hospital on purpose, and the truth finally ‘slips out’ some other way, it’ll be a different ending. The more they try to explain, the worse they’ll look. All they can do is grit their teeth and take it. If they accuse us of being underhanded, the crowd will only despise them more.”

Zhou Can was definitely living up to the role of strategist.

If Third Hospital knew a plan like this was in the works, they’d probably be shivering in their boots.

“Looks like asking your advice was the right move. When it comes to strategy, you’re the best.”

A broad, bright smile spread across Director Xueyan’s face.

After chatting a bit longer, Zhou Can finally took his leave.

He glanced at his watch. Nearly midnight already. Life just isn’t easy.

Hardly ever does he get to leave work on time.

For most resident doctors, the worst thing is having to pull overnight shifts and stay late.

Even attending physicians often can’t escape overtime.

It’s only after making associate chief physician that a doctor’s schedule gets close to normal. But even then, it’s grueling—most days they’re out the door by six in the morning and not home until eight or nine at night.

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If you decide to pursue a real career as a doctor, you can expect a lifetime of busyness and exhaustion.

Besides clinical work, there are teaching duties, research projects, and constant studying to stay at the cutting edge.

That’s why doctors rarely have any free time.

A lot of doctors can only practice for their driver’s license at night—they’re just that busy.

Zhou Can’s department took good care of him. They never scheduled him for overtime or night shifts, but his workload was heavy. Whenever Cardiothoracic Surgery had a tough operation, he never turned it down.

Sometimes he’d have to go lend a hand at other departments for consultations.

Pediatrics, neurosurgery, general surgery—departments where he was already known for his skills all called on him whenever a tricky case turned up.

Zhou Can rarely refused any request for help.

Consulting on difficult cases let him learn stuff he could never find in textbooks and gave him more first-hand diagnostic experience. It helped him flexibly apply everything he’d studied too.

Best of all, he’d end up earning a huge boost in pathology diagnosis experience.

If luck was on his side, he’d pick up plenty of pharmacological reasoning experience too.

With so many upsides, he was always eager to help anytime a department called.

……

The next day, Zhou Can headed to the hospital just like always.

Since it was a short walk from home, he usually chose to go on foot. Still, most days his car was left in the hospital’s underground parking garage.

The hospital didn’t have any restrictions on staff parking.

Back when Chief Mi ran the Security Department, he never targeted staff parking—only patients and families had to pay to park.

As Zhou Can neared the Emergency Hall, a middle-aged man in a baseball cap, black leather jacket and blue jeans strode quickly toward him.

Having someone dressed like that approach out of nowhere would put any medical worker on high alert.

You never knew if, in the next second, he’d pull out a foot-long watermelon knife and lash out.

Sometimes doctors have no idea what set off a patient or their family.

After all, doctors are only human. It’s impossible to keep every patient and relative a hundred percent happy.

Especially some patients or families convinced they’re more ‘professional’ than the doctors—armed with internet searches or advice from random acquaintances, telling doctors how to treat them.

With these sorts of patients, nine out of ten doctors will switch into defensive mode.

The last one, unless they’re a total newbie, is probably thinking about how to persuade the difficult patient to leave.

“You’re Zhou Can, right?”

“Yeah?”

Zhou Can tensed, ready to react at a moment’s notice.

He could feel the man’s intense hostility just from his glare.

Zhou Can ran through his memory fast—he was sure he didn’t know this man, and he hadn’t killed or crippled any patients lately.

In terms of reputation, Zhou Can wasn’t just top of the Emergency Department—he was among the ten best at all of Tuyu Hospital.

The patients he treated had an excellent recovery rate.

“I’m warning you, stay away from my wife. Otherwise, something bad might happen to that pretty girlfriend who keeps bringing you meals every day.”

The man’s voice was low and menacing.

“And who’s your wife?”

For him to know Zhou Can’s girlfriend brought him lunch daily, he had to have been spying for a while.

Compared to those male doctors who always flirted with nurses and female doctors, Zhou Can was truly a breath of fresh air. That was largely thanks to Dr. Xu’s influence.

Dr. Xu, whether in the OR or elsewhere, always kept a stern face.

Never once did he tell crude jokes with the nurses or female doctors.

Zhou Can just couldn’t understand how any misunderstanding about him being involved with another doctor or nurse had started.

“Xueyan!”

The man spat out the name like a curse.

“Ah… You’re Sis Yan’s husband?”

Zhou Can had never known anything about Director Xueyan’s family, let alone seen her husband.

He hadn’t expected a first meeting like this.

“Listen to how close you sound! I always knew you two were up to something.” The man’s face twitched, his expression turning almost twisted.

Zhou Can was speechless.

Heaven help him—he and Director Xueyan had nearly a seventeen-year age gap. There was zero chance of anything improper.

All along, they’d kept their relationship strictly professional.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. Director Xue and I are just colleagues. We were both students of Dr. Hu Kan, and at work I only ever treated her with respect. I’ve never thought of anything inappropriate. Plus, you know I have a girlfriend—there’s no way I’d do anything like that with someone else.”

Zhou Can forced himself to patiently explain.

Since this was Director Xueyan’s husband, he didn’t want to risk upsetting her home life.

Sure, Director Xueyan was attractive, but she was over forty, and Zhou Can—already accomplished and financially stable—wasn’t exactly interested in older women.

He wasn’t into the whole ‘mature woman’ thing.

“Cut the excuses. Last night, you were with my wife in her office for an hour. She walked out flushed and excited—only an idiot wouldn’t guess what that means. And this isn’t the first or second time you’ve been alone together. If I catch you near her again, you just wait and see.”

With that, the man didn’t bother listening to another word and stalked off.

Zhou Can never imagined he’d run into something like this first thing in the morning.

The guy was convinced he and Director Xueyan were involved and wouldn’t listen to reason. What a headache.

After work that evening, Zhou Can saw a voice message from Director Le. A patient who’d recently had thoracic surgery was in severe pain, and they wanted Zhou Can to come take a look.

Every operation in Cardiothoracic Surgery is high-risk.

Severe post-op pain is never a good sign. If the cause isn’t found and treated quickly, the consequences can be fatal.

Besides Director Le asking for help, Pediatrics wanted him over for a joint consultation too.

This time, it was Dr. Tang Fei herself making the request. They’d admitted a child with a complicated condition, and she wanted him to consult.

If Dr. Tang Fei was personally calling, it meant the department’s specialists had already discussed the case and couldn’t reach a good conclusion. Usually, that meant either the cause was unclear or the operation was just too risky.

Either way, Zhou Can excelled in these situations.

He lived in the operating room, often doing twenty or thirty surgeries a day. Sometimes, he’d fill in for big operations in thoracic or neurosurgery—even serving as chief surgeon.

But why ‘serving as’ instead of ‘being named’ chief surgeon?

He was blocked by surgical credentialing rules.

A junior resident isn’t allowed to officially be lead surgeon for a level-four major surgery, not even if he were the director’s son.

So he could only act the part, never put it on paper.

When Pediatrics faced a tough case, calling Zhou Can in for advice usually meant a solid solution was on the way.

If he said an operation could be done, it probably could.

If he said it couldn’t, then it really couldn’t.

He was on good terms with most surgical departments and knew exactly what each team’s capabilities were.

If Pediatrics needed to solve a mystery case in his field, Zhou Can almost always got to the bottom of it. He’d rarely disappointed their experts.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

Zhou Can replied to Dr. Tang Fei, then rushed off toward Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Today, since he didn’t have to do surgery in Cardiothoracic, he could go home early. He made sure to tell Su Qianqian not to bring him food.

Honestly, he was worried Director Xueyan’s husband might lose his mind and actually go after Su Qianqian.

Staying at home was just safer.

With Wei Fang’s protection and a full set of surveillance and security systems, even a professional kidnapper would have a hard time taking Su Qianqian away, never mind Director Xueyan’s husband.