Valet Parking

[mechanictodr]

So... the hospital I work for is currently in "economic hardship" as there are many people in town who have lost jobs and can no longer pay for their care. No one gets turned away and the care is as excellent as ever. Wages have been frozen for most staff and matching for retirement has been cut for most staff and things are a little tense. This week the hospital decided to spend over 1 million per year to fund a vallet parking service for all patients and family. All I can say to myself is... "Seriously? WTF? We're bleeding revenue like crazy with all the charity care and cutting wages and benifits and you want to offer a 1 million dollar parking service?"

Anyone else work for a hospital or business that is doing something like this?

BTW: So far, according to to the hospital, the patients and family love the free vallet parking.

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[LuciusVorenus]

That seems like kind of an odd idea...
It would make sense if they were charging for it and it was turning a profit but if it's free it doesn't really make sense. There's A LOT more that they could spend a million dollars on. Are the people who operate the program volunteers or do they get paid too because that would make even less sense. Maybe the money was donated or something SPECIFICALLY to fund that program?

On the other hand maybe it attracts more costumers...who knows

 

[filhodeinferno]

So... the hospital I work for is currently in "economic hardship" as there are many people in town who have lost jobs and can no longer pay for their care. No one gets turned away and the care is as excellent as ever. Wages have been frozen for most staff and matching for retirement has been cut for most staff and things are a little tense. This week the hospital decided to spend over 1 million per year to fund a vallet parking service for all patients and family. All I can say to myself is... "Seriously? WTF? We're bleeding revenue like crazy with all the charity care and cutting wages and benifits and you want to offer a 1 million dollar parking service?"

Anyone else work for a hospital or business that is doing something like this?

BTW: So far, according to to the hospital, the patients and family love the free vallet parking.

The hospital that I work at has a valet service, and it is nice for elderly/disabled patients who have trouble parking and walking. What I want to know is, where are they spending that million bucks? Where I work it is run by volunteers and just takes up a small portion of the hospital parking lot....couldn't take more than 10-20k per year to fund, if that.

 

[LuciusVorenus]

The hospital that I work at has a valet service, and it is nice for elderly/disabled patients who have trouble parking and walking. What I want to know is, where are they spending that million bucks? Where I work it is run by volunteers and just takes up a small portion of the hospital parking lot....couldn't take more than 10-20k per year to fund, if that.

Seriously, even if they were paying $8/hr for 10 valet people they still wouldn't need any more than 150K.

A million dollars? :/

 

[filhodeinferno]

Seriously, even if they were paying $8/hr for 10 valet people they still wouldn't need any more than 150K.

A million dollars? :/

Must be a govt. run hospital...

 

[mechanictodr]

Not a govt. run hospital. Just your normal non-profit business. It happens to be in a "wealthy" town that gets a lot of donations. The vallet parking is not run by volunteers. The hospital is a level 2 trauma center with just under 250 beds and has a pretty large parking lot of which all is parked via vallet.

 

[Hoody]

Must be a govt. run hospital...

 

[thesauce]

1 million dollars is a drop in the bucket for almost any hospital. The cost saving measures of eliminating matching for retirement and freezing wages likely saved more than 10x that. As mentioned, valet parking can be very helpful for elderly/disabled patients and, thereby, has a good chance of attracting more patients which could boost revenue and put them back on track. It's also good for a hospital to show that they're actively expanding/improving services in a bad economy as it makes the patients feel they are still in good hands. It might turn out to be a great idea, but only time will tell.

 

[Planet Ocean]

My hospital does the same thing. Were part of a large hospital chain but from what I hear we are doing pretty well. Hospitals have been getting along with out vallet parking for a 100 years but I can tell you how helpful they are to the E.D.

 

[mvenus929]

The hospital I volunteered at had 24/7 valet parking staffed by volunteers (I think). I loved it, especially since they started making all the staff park off campus due to the shortage of parking spaces.

The hospital I work for now offers valet parking from 5:30 am - 6:30 pm Monday through Friday. It's staffed by workers, and people seem to love it. We're also turning out huge profits; our hospital distributes a 'shared comp' check when we make more profit than we budget for (so that we aren't actually making a profit), and for the past year, it's been more than $800 per person (and we employ some 1200 people).

 

[Depakote]

Most of the hospitals I rotate through offer Valet parking. You have to consider that a lot of the people who come to the hospital have significant mobility issues.

Practically speaking: I'd guess from a liability standpoint, it's much cheaper to pay $1mil a year to offer free valet than to settle a multi-million dollar law suit for an octogenarian that slipped on the ice in your parking lot on the way out to her car.

 

[Tatastrophy]

valet parking is a good idea for medical complexes where it may be a long walk from the parking structure...not so good for sick people. however I'd only advocate one be used when the hospital can pay its employees.