Chapter 254 - 233: Flying Over the Madhouse (Part Two)
Heh heh.
Li Cheng had no energy left to be angry, instead, he cracked a smile.
In China, if hospitals are evaluated based on their size, scientific research directions, technical talent, medical equipment, and other conditions, they can be divided into many levels.
From community-level Level 1 primary hospitals, to inter-community Second Level district hospitals, and then to Third Level hospitals, which are cross-regional and provide national health services.
Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, however, is a "top-tier" hospital on a different track.
Located in Washington, D.C., it was established in 1855 and was the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States.
Initially, it mainly treated soldiers with mental illnesses from the military, but with the onset of the Civil War, a large number of soldiers were sent to Saint Elizabeth, causing the hospital’s finances to become severely strained.
The cash-strapped hospital soon discovered a new way to make money by admitting people who were not sick.
Whether it was drunkards making a scene after drinking or illegal immigrants reported by civilians, all were accepted without exception. After all, the federal government provided financial subsidies based on the number of beds; the more patients, the more money the hospital made.
Eventually, the insatiable hospital even collaborated with the police, FBI, CIA, and social elites to detain journalists who exposed corporate scandals, anti-government activists, leftists, wealthy widows, and so on, all in the name of mental illness.
They tortured the patients with drugs, bloodletting, electrotherapy, hydrotherapy (immersing them in hot water for several hours until their skin was scalded), and so on, torturing them to the point of inhumanity. Countless patients died, and those who survived and left the hospital were broken people.