Hospital parking fees

[Guest hydes79]

With the cost of 5$ to 10$ for parking per day, do you think it's fair for patient that visit the hospital regularly (e.g. dialysis patients) to pay this amount of money? Should the parking be free for such patients?

[Guest canmic]

I believe that medicare should cover the cost of parking for such patients. Here, many of the chronic patients simply use the disabled bus that is basically a free appointment based taxi for them. I'm sure it would be cheaper for the gov't to give them parking passes.

 

Patients complain all the time in Emerg that the parking should be free and they shouldn't have to feed a meter or buy a parking receipt from a machine or whatever. The thing is, there is a fundamental problem with making hospital parking just plain free for everyone... The lot would fill up by about 8am and stay full all day long. What good would that be?

[Guest avarrin2001]

As well, parking fees are a major source of much needed income for hospitals. However, I do agree Hydes, patients who have to frequent the hospital numerous times a week (such as dialysis and chemo patients) should definitely receive parking passes... it is way too much money, they have enough of a burden to carry as it is.

[Guest shy]

I used to work in a CF clinic (in a hospital) and they reimbursed their patients parking. I believe many out-patient clinics (maybe through charity foundations for the disease) will reimburse them for parking.

[Guest satsumargirl]

I agree that parking to receive medical attention is not fair. At a hospital, walk-in clinic or otherwise.

 

One walk-in clinic near me will give you I believe a half hour of parking if you buy something at the pharmacy...assuming you need drugs anyway saves you a bit. But normally cannot get through a walkin clinic wait in even an hour so you always end up paying something.

 

As for hospitals, I'm wondering if anyone knows if frequent patients can simply buy a parking pass.

 

For example, parking at the hospital where I work is $4/day...good rate since the hospital accross the road is $8.

But my parking pass is about $30/month. That could save them some money. I don't even agree that hospitals should be generating income from their employees this way. I definitely don't think they should be generating it from the patients. I work in a rehab & long-term care facility so alot of the visitors are elderly and no longer earning income.

 

But I'm not actually sure if they have to pay. I know the volunteers here get free parking tokens when they come in. Maybe family gets free tokens too??

Who knows!

[Guest medeng]

I don't even agree that hospitals should be generating income from their employees this way.

 

sorry, but i'm going to have to go on a bit of an enviro-rant on this.... first, the hospitals is probably not making money off of you, once you take into account real estate costs (which are pretty high where most hospitals are) and operation costs (staff, snow removal etc.) I bet they aren't making much... second, if you don't want to pay for parking, take the bus, it drives me absolutely nuts that employers will subsidize parking passes, but won't subsidize bus passes!

 

in my opinion if you want the luxury of driving to work, contributing to air pollution which contributes to respiratory diseases, you should pay for parking!

 

now, when it comes to pts, i do think charging them for parking is completely unacceptable, especially at the rates hospitals charge! It essentially amounts to a user fee, as for many pts, there is not always the option of public transit (ie they are travelling far from home already for treatment, or just are not well enough to wait for the bus etc.) But how you are going to provide parking free without abuse of the system is a tricky administrative challenge...

[Guest canmic]

Luxury of driving to work?

 

Uhhh you forgot that we're talking about hospitals, right?

 

Or would you want the on-call doctor/technician/OR nursing team to ride the bus in while you're laying there dying...

 

Also, how does the nurse working the 3pm to 3am shift get home if the busses stop running...

 

Being a tree-hugging hippie is one thing, but you have to be practical too..

 

hmm I seem to be 'touchy' on this one.. Maybe it's because I'm fed up of having to pay for a manditory 'U-Pass' that I can't even use because it would take me 3 hours each way to get to school by bus...

[Guest marbledust]

Also, how does the nurse working the 3pm to 3am shift get home if the busses stop running...

 

I have never heard of such a nursing shift. Twelve hours, yes. But where do nurses work 3pm-3am?

 

:smokin

[Guest hydes79]

I agree with medeng. The hospital is not making any money from parking fees, but this money is needed for maintenance of the parking lots.

 

Hydes

[Guest canmic]

I was just giving an example with the 3am to 3am, but it isn't an unrealistic one.

 

For 'real' shifts, here are some know of, and all of them are in vancouver hospitals:

 

2pm - 2am / 2am - 2pm (off shift at 2am means leaving at about 2:30-3:00am realistically)

 

4pm - 4am / 4am - 4pm

 

4am - 12pm / 12pm - 8pm / 8pm - 4am

 

And the thing is, the nurses rotate through various shifts, so just about all of them wind up on a 'graveyard' shift at some point.

[Guest uglyorange]

There is free parking near the hospital sites. It's just 3 or 4 blocks away. Sometimes, getting those parking spots are hard too.

[Guest canmic]

I'm not sure where you live, but out here, within about 4-5 blocks of a hospital, all the free parking is 'local residents with permits only'...

 

Of course, rural hospitals always have nice big empty free parking lots (at least the ones I've seen do)

[Guest neypongwah]

One possible approach to this problem is to give patients (and/or their care givers) a significant discount on parking at hospitals.

 

In my opinion, it all depends on whether hospitals generate revenue from parking (I am not sure whether this is true or not, because I walk to work).

 

If in fact hospitals are generating revenue from parking, I think that people who make regular visits for medical procedures (like chemo or dialysis for example) should pay for parking at cost. After all, long-term patients and their friends and families are very likely to spend money in hospital cafeterias and gift shops. Thus, while discounted parking may represent a loss of revenue for hospitals, money generated through other outlets will make up for this.

 

If hospitals do not generate any revenue from parking, then I think that every individual must pay his or her share to cover the costs.

[Guest avarrin2001]

I know some ppl seem to be a bit skeptical about my post mentionning that hospitals generate significant income from parking lots... it almost made me doubt myself... tho i knew i had been told that the hospital I volunteer at only has income (outside of gov't funding, of course) from the gift shop, the Tim Horton's and the parking lot. Anyway, i looked up a hospital in TO and found this ...

 

"By raising the cost of visitor parking at Sunnybrook campus we will be able to generate approximately $1.5 million in revenue, which will be put towards patient care."

 

and

 

"Money raised from parking fees supports important research programs at Sunnybrook. "

 

Sunnybrook hospital parking information website

 

I agree, that there should be some set up for those patients who have to frequent the hospital... some multiple times a week (i.e., dialysis and chemo patients) however, IMHO, doing away with fees completely would be quite detrimental to the hospital overall.

[Guest satsumargirl]

Hey...I was just at a training session at another hospital and noticed while I searching for parking that there were spots reserved for dialysis patients free of charge, sponsored by the Kidney Foundation...and then I thought of this thread and thought I would post as an FYI

So looks like there is some effort/consideration of frequent pts. Not suggesting it is adequate or covers all groups, but nice to see.

 

Sats

[Guest canmic]

I know that the children's hospital here gives parking passes to parents of children who are going to be staying more than a day or two.

 

Also they have RV parking spots with hookups for parents of patients from out of town who basically live in the parking lot for a couple weeks/months while their kid is in hospital.

 

The biggest problem in urban hospitals is that no amount of parking would be 'enough' unless you make it too expensive to use as casual parking. If the parking lot was free, it would be full all day, every day, and the patients would have nowhere to park.

 

At a hospital I work at they make the parking outside the emerg very expensive, but then if a patient drives themselves they put their plate # on a list and don't ticket if they don't pay. That way relatives/friends/visitors can move their car to the cheap lot once they drop off the patient, but patients who are injured/sick can park right outside emerg and stay there for free..

 

People still complain (of course), and argue that there should be 'enough free parking' for 'everyone' but when I ask them "where do you suggest we put it?" they just have a blank stare, or, they say "Well the hospital in <insert small rural town's name here> always has enough parking!"

 

the joy of working in emerg...