Minister to reform Hospital Parking Rules ........

New guidelines have been drawn up to put an end to the stress of 'unfair' charges

Opinion:  I have to say that if a Hospital hasn’t organised their parking charges yet and grasped how the start of a Hospital visit is not with a Physician but a Parking Attendant yet ……   Readers here know my feelings on this subject.

From the article here that tells us that a Minister of the Crown must force District Health Trusts in the UK (Boards in NZ) to get their parking organised properly and look after the chronically ill and disabled, tells us a lot about the actual Boards and their governance.  They appear to believe that the Hospital only starts at the swoosh of the automatic doors on the front of the building. 

While the patients suffer poorly designed and operated car parks and with contracted operators who take advantage of the lack of oversight, the Trusts (Boards) may wonder why they have a high number of non-appearances or patients worried about their car while they should be worried about their health!

This article is a good reminder to District Health Boards in New Zealand to take the opportunity to get it right before the Minister of Health intervenes.

Article:

Relatives of chronically ill patients must be given free or cheap hospital parking under new rules announced by the Government.

Patients with disabilities and those with frequent appointments as well as staff working shifts will also benefit from the shake-up, according to Jeremy Hunt.

The Health Secretary said new guidelines for English hospitals had been drawn up to put an end to the stress of “unfair” charges.

Read more Here ............

Christchurch Hospital set to be car-free area soon

New options include security staff acting as valets.

Christchurch Hospital will soon become a car-free zone, but authorities are still deciding how to ferry people to and from the central-city site.

The hospital will lose about 150 car parking spaces when preparation work on the new acute services building starts.

A start date could not be confirmed by Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), but a hospital committee report stated it would begin on 6^th September 2014.

Read More Here ....

Parking Space on a Par with the Skills of the Surgeon....SERIOUSLY!

Researcher Colin Howie, a senior orthopaedic consultant at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, said there was evidence from parts of the NHS in the UK that factors such as food and parking were as important to patients as the operation.

“The clinical skills of the surgeon were on a par with a parking space,” he said.

Mr Howie said the NHS had to change its focus on how it was dealing with patients if it wanted to improve its satisfaction levels.

The study focused on more than 4,700 joint replacement surgery patients. Mr Howie said: “About a third of patients’ satisfaction comes from Doctor’s technical abilities, about a third comes from the Doctor telling them [patients] what’s going to happen and just under a third comes from the patients’ experience of the healthcare.

There is no doubt that the study is controversial and a blow to the egos of many in the healthcare industry. A response to the article in The Scotsman shows that. Harry Abbott writes, “Indeed, indeed...I see parking bays to replace operating theatres, spaces dedicated for appendicitis, others for replacement knees and hips, etc. ...all having, instead of anaesthetics, pay as you listen readings from today's news in the Scotsman. It'll be a sure and certain money spinner, and the savings on salaries of medical staff? Big figures, big figures.........

The problem is that many in the industry just don’t understand that the appointment starts from the time the patient drives onto the grounds, not the time they walk through the doctor’s clinic door. Patient or customer grooming has to be a major concern of hospitals and the best place to do that is in the car park.

I suspect there will be many people who will be up in arms about the validity of the survey or some such other reason to debunk the results, so as to keep the status quo. I applaud the survey but if nothing changes, then we know the reasons for having hospitals is not to provide care but to provide work for Doctors. As more than a couple of Doctors have told me in the past, if we didn’t have Hospitals, we wouldn’t have patients…. No seriously!

Kevin Warwood

Read the story here.

These views are my own.

HOSPITAL PARKING IS NOT A DIY PROJECT ..........

“So that’s four 18 foot 2 x4’s, those 4 gates hinges and the box of nail-gun nails, right?” the teller at the local handy man shop asked. 

“That’s it’, I replied. 

“Got a big DIY job on have you?  Spending the weekend on the end of a hammer?” he said making a hammering motion with his hand. 

“Putting up a fence. Thought I might give it a go myself first …… before my wife calls a professional in.  How hard can it be?” I questioned. 

He looked at me and you could see the eyes rolling.  “Friend, ….. we get them all in here.  Everyone wants to give it a go first before they return with burnt fingers and a lesson learnt.  Ya know just over 80% of people try to do these projects themselves and they end up with simple injuries like falling off ladders or cutting fingers off.  Quarter million people fall off ladders you know? Nearly half of those people end up getting some kind of remedial building work being done after they stuff it up”.  He leaned forward and looked at me straight in the eyes.  “I want to sell you those materials” he said pointing at the timber, “but anything more serious than a fence, you should get a pro to do it”. 

He turned back and started punching the keys on the register, “look after yourself” he said without looking at me. 

I got the job done.  I didn’t want to tell him the reason I got the nail gun was because I tried to do the job with a hammer and had given myself tennis elbow.  So if I wasn’t going to use a builder to do a simple fence, then why would I expect a car park owner to seek professional help as well?

Read the Article in 'Parking Today' Here ........






These thoughts are my own.

Northland Hospital Car Parking and Roading Review

The Northland District Health Board has approved, in principle, paid car parking to ensure that they can continue to provide adequate secure parking in a controlled environment.





http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1301/S00479/car-parking-and-roading-review.htm

300 more parking spaces planned at University Hospital of North Staffordshire

A great move that should be applauded.

Hospitals have an obligation to allow the public to gain full access to the site and must do that by providing good car park facilities.  People generally don't go to Hospitals on the bus, as it is not a leisure pursuit or to the office.  it is usually an emergency or an event that means the people are thinking about the Hospital and not the transport choice.  Car parks are also mostly self fundable.  Time for other Hospital Boards to follow suit.

Kevin Warwood

 



http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/300-parking-spaces-planned-hospital/story-17929100-detail/story.html

Dunedin Hospital - A case of the frog boiling slowly.

Dunedin has been in the midst of a Hospital Parking crisis for sometime.  Infringing preganant woman is an extreme step to realise that.  Might be a case of the frog being boiled slowly.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10839111

More Revenue - Its a Great Thing for Everyone

I am constantly concerned by the lack of drive for local body politicians in Councils and Health Boards that will not see, nor do anything about, the benefits of paid parking in their institutions. 

The benefits are more revenue to proved more opportunity for improvements, better machinery and equipment and mostly, an ability to drive better behaviours in parking habits.

Hospitals have the best opportunity to improve their ‘lot’ in life as the extra revenue will always help out a hospital, yet they cannot put up a car park building to house the demand for parking from the public, patients and staff.  A parking building pays for itself and doesn’t need to come out of ‘vote health’ at all. Yet one of the biggest gripes about hospitals is a lack of parking.  There are so many ways that technology and modern parking methodologies can support the vulnerable so that they are looked after in a paid parking environment, but these are getting ignored.

Council’s can support the growth of a city, in a small way, by how it organises and operates its parking.  Key support should be given to maximising the use of every bay the Council owns and operates.  It cannot do that with ‘abstract’ parking prices.  You cannot affect positively the activity in an area if you charge the same price in a busy area as a slow area.  We have seen recently Auckland’s response with vast swathes of city linked together with the same price for parking, assuming that occupancy, supply and demand are all similar.  I don’t think so.  It’s the response of politicians getting involved in something they have a passing knowledge of.

These organisations can drive the growth in good habits by adopting a modern parking methodology that allows for a constantly adjusting (within parameters), dynamic network of parking resources that responds to the changing balance of supply and demand in the localised area.  The by-product is increased revenue and that’s a good by-product to have.

Kevin Warwood

Time For Choice from our Parking Conference

For many years I have been going to parking conferences and I look forward to them as well.  In many parts of the world and in many of them I have been astounded at the changing technologies that are shaping how we do things in the parking world, different companies that have come and gone and the wide range of methodologies that have been worked and re-worked (or even re-packaged) in an attempt to do things better. 

The common theme through all of these conferences, admittedly run by professional conference companies, is that they are wide in variety, topics and speakers.  The New Zealand Parking Conference, in Dunedin this year, has to be the narrowest of scope of programmes I have seen in a long time.  This is a programme entirely focussed on Enforcement, while Operations, Technology, Management, Valet, Marketing have been left out in the cold and untouched.

Look at the up coming British Parking association Conference programme on 27^th September 2012,

• The Parking Charges Debate
• Sustainable Towns
• Town Teamwork
• Parking Strategy
• Understanding Parking Behaviour
• Innovation and Technology Focus
• Maximising the Evening and Night Time Economy
• High Streets of the Future
• Accessible Towns
• Understanding and Exceeding Customer Expectations

This is a great programme and it covers all aspects of parking, except Enforcement, which is covered by the speakers they have.

Look at the October 15^th National Parking Association convention’s programme.  They run a choice of six tracks to mix and match from,

• Certified Parking Professional (CPP) - education
• Peak Performance - Smart Cities: The Next Wave in Transportation and Parking Management
• Technology - Smart Cities: The Future of Citywide Parking Management.
• Finance - Driving Performance: The Realities of Revenue Control, People, Process & Technology
• Valet - How To Deliver White Glove Service to Meet Rising Front Line Service Expectations
• Management & Operations - The Big 3: Revenue, Maintenance & Management

Nothing in here about Enforcement but they also cover topics in Airport and Hotel parking and have a valet Olympics for fun.

NZPA programme is,

• WOF & Licensing Enforcing
• Kerbside Discretions/Interactions/Explanations
• CCS Disability Action - update on new mobility cards
• Ministry of Transport Updates
• History of the Number Plate

I am thinking that the NZPA conference is so narrowly focussed that it has become a Council only jaunt and since Councils have a small market share, in the bigger cities anyway, they ignore the majority of the car parking market.

I hear that there is a Healthcare Parking conference planned for Christchurch in December this year, to coincide with the re-build of Christchurch.  Maybe there will be specialist conferences pop up to fill the large gap left by NZPA.  There is already an airport conference for Australasia that has a parking component in it, as parking is a huge part of airport operations these days.  Other specialist conferences should be welcomed as the topics mentioned above must be covered regularly in New Zealand.

I think there is a need for a Parking conference in New Zealand, that will cover all of the topics of parking, offer some education and give participants, and that means the private sector as well, a well earned choice of topics.  This will only create a closer and better performing sector that will deliver better and more consistent standards to the public of New Zealand.

Kevin Warwood

Poor Mans Performance Parking II - A Matter of Balance

Like most things in life, balance will always bring most rewards to most people.  Once influences get involved that do not understand the need for balance and they try to manipulate the system to their favour, or move the system out of a lack of or full competence, then the system is out of balance and undue pressures occur. In parking, this will look like queues, circulating traffic, or streets of vacant spaces …. and frustration for all.

My definition of ‘balanced parking’ is as one car pulls out, another pulls in, that is, supply and demand are in balance.

Balanced Parking is a system where all of the levers that a parking resource manager has at their disposal are being used to create a system that favours access for all who require it, has little or no queuing, little or no circulating, little or no vacancy, is well communicated and has the trust to be managed at a low level. 

Levers of a Balanced Parking system are those that affect the supply or demand of the car park resource.  These influencers are things like time-restrictions, number of spaces, proximity of the car park to the demand drivers, lighting, security, safety record, neighbourhood, geography, barrier versus pay & display, lack of acceptance of payments, look & feel, product categories, staff or lack of staff, marketing, technology, enforcement and of course, price. 

Mt definition of supply is car parks, and demand, are cars looking for a car park.

Abstract pricing is inefficient.  We need to understanding that a one size fits all approach creates anomalies and favouritism to a few.  In some cities they have a single on-street price for parking.  The anomalies that this system has created are huge.  In Christchurch where an earthquake decimated the CBD of the city, now has activity beavering away on the west of the city but the east is still to have any new activity appear.  The response to the one size fits all policy there, is that the west is under priced and queues and traffic circulation is occurring and the east has 6 cars per week parking on one street, but the price is still the same.  Abstract pricing does not work.  It must be micro managed.  Technology and new management techniques allow for micro-managing parking operations to a much lower level now.

The city’s resource must include all of its stock, which includes private resources as well.  There is little point in trying to understand and then respond to what the demand is telling you, without understanding the supply.  This is clearly a difficult task, especially if the records of supply have been ineffectually kept over time.  Understanding what is happening in front of you each day will make a lot more sense if you do know your supply.

Occupancy is the ultimate indicator of balance.  We will not be able to get to a true 100% occupancy measure ever for obvious reasons but we should be able to get to a figure that you are comfortable with.  Operating at 90% plus occupancy will require some very efficient technology, such as space detectors etc.  Shoup spoke one space per block as the general figure for occupancy that delivers general balance.  I suggest that if you only have a low tech approach, you may have to put a simple system in place and sneak up on the occupancy figure over time by refining your processes and procedures.

A simple low tech method of getting your occupancy figure and balance, is to use the revenue transposed to time.  This is the system that makes a few assumptions, but is a simple method to use and can be easily set up and understood. 

First, we make the assumption that revenue equals the appropriate time spent parking.  In truth, this is inaccurate for example, people will buy an hours worth of parking and then leave after 50 minutes.  The next person does the same, and on a busy day, you can end up with revenue equalling 120% of the actual time purchased.  Conversely, you can have someone sit in a space using up the time, and only paying when prompted by the visit of an Enforcement Officer.  Occupancy will be at low levels here.  But if we understand these possibilities, then we can be happy with the assumption that revenue equals the appropriate time spent parking.  For our example we will say that the revenue for the day was $21.00.

Secondly, we take the possible revenue that a system allows, for example, if your parking system allows for parking between the hours of 09:00 to 17:00 and the rate is $3.00 per hour, then the possible revenue is $24.00 per day.

Thirdly, we divide the revenue by the possible revenue and our occupancy for the day is $21/$24 = 87.5%.   Our low tech system is close to being in balance or demand equalling demand.

Working out what the ideal number is for your city is difficult as it is unique to your city, so saying 87.5% is the right number is wrong.  One precinct of our city has a hospital in it.  The occupancy, based on revenue, spikes at 7am to 8am, as the staff change over shifts.  The rest of the day is at about 60%.  So do you set about amending your pricing to reflect the 400% before 8am or the rest of the day?  Each precinct and each city is different and needs to be worked out over time.

One of my projects has been to develop a low tech system to understand the balance, divide the city into relevant precincts and to start to collect occupancy data on each precinct to show how supply meets demand in each area.  The results have shown that recommendations for some serous price reductions are called for in some areas, price maintenance in other areas, but no price rises can be justified yet.

The simple system we have implemented can deliver data that can be reviewed at anytime, for anytime that money is being put into machines, and face it, these are generally the only times we need to monitor ‘balance’ anyway.

Kevin Warwood

Do Hospital Staff Have Unreal Expectations for Parking?

Both Sides Unreasonable here?

Unfortunately, Lorraine, as lovely a lady as she appears, said "NHS staff are expected to stop what they’re doing four hours into their working day to go and move their cars." I don’t think that is the expectation. I think the expectation is for staff to not park in these areas or there wouldn't be a 4 hour limit. Having said that, there appears to be a clear need for some staff parking facility. If the NHS decided to go down that route, it could pay for it by charging staff to park or selling some kind of BOOT scheme to a private investor. It would solve the issue.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/06/24/nurse-takes-defiant-stand-against-hospital-parking-charges-by-refusing-to-pay-fine-86908-23899870/

Canterbury hospitals set back years by quake

On top of this, there are two hospital car park buildings that are out of action, a total of about 750 spaces gone.

Canterbury hospitals set back years by quake.

LOIS CAIRNS

Quake damage at Canterbury hospitals could see patient services disrupted for several years to come.

The region's hospitals have suffered considerable damage as a result of the ongoing quakes and many key facilities need extensive repair work before they can resume operating at full capacity.

"We've got over 9000 hospital rooms that are damaged," Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief executive David Meates said. "There are already 17 buildings that we've vacated. The size and level of repairs will have an impact on services, but we're working through short-term options to try and make sure the community doesn't have any less access to care."

With repairs likely to take some years, Meates is warning the DHB could struggle to meet some of the health targets set by the government.

The performance of district health boards is rated against national targets set by the Health Ministry, with the results published every quarter so the public can see how their DHB is performing.

The latest results from the Canterbury DHB show that despite the upheaval of the last 12 months it has managed to achieve, and even exceed, a number of the targets but Meates has warned that tough times lie ahead and that it would become increasingly challenging to meet the targets.

In recent weeks, the CDHB had been forced to close the operating theatres at Ashburton Hospital and to find a temporary new home for the Child Health Oncology Centre, which had had a flow-on effect on the type of paediatric surgery that could be carried out.

The Parkside block at Christchurch Hospital, which contains 24 operating theatres and undertakes 20,000 operations a year, is going to be a building site for the next 18-24 months as extensive repair work is carried out.

Asked whether the DHB could contract out more of its services, Meates said it was already using most of the private sector's capacity. A number of innovative options for delivering care were currently being looked at and some key decisions were in the pipeline that would significantly impact on how health care services in Canterbury were delivered in the coming years.

"The biggest immediate challenge we've got at the moment is how we deliver services through this winter – that's one of the big challenges we're facing," Meates said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/6593845/Canterbury-hospitals-set-back-years-by-quake



Car Park / Lot / Parkade Analysis

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Business Analysis Services offered to evaluate, cost and recommend new or existing car parks, from loss makers to additions to your portfolio.

I have been involved in car parking for many years from managing;

• Airports
• Hospitals
• Universities
• Toll Roads
• Multi-story car parks
• Large government departments
• Property companies
• Small car park contracts
• Operations
• Evaluation/feasibility

Also equipment set up, RFP and tender processes and new technologies.  I have also spent some time concentrating on improving loss makers and contract re-negotiation. 

Send me an email to kevin.warwood@gmail.com and we can discuss your needs. 

Kevin Warwood

Beware of Doctor Driving SUV's

I was walking along one of the main floors in the Helipad car park building at the very busy Auckland Hospital one Wednesday morning, when I saw a large SUV drive through the entrance and swing down the lane towards me.  I was just doing a walk through the car park to see how the day was turning out and noticed that the SUV was driving on the wrong side of the road.  As the SUV got closer, I could see that the driver who was a female, had a cup of coffee in one hand, resting on the steering wheel, and the other hand was touching up make up on the face in the rear view mirror.  Absolutely staggered to see this I motioned for the vehicle to stop.  I leaned toward the driver side window and said, “You should watch how you drive your vehicle in here, it’s a Hospital car park and some people may not be able to get out of the way as fast as I could”.  The lady promptly scowled at me and said, “I am a doctor and I work here.  If you don’t watch what you saying I will report you to the Chief of Surgery!” and drove off …… leaving me with an open mouth.

Readers will have heard me mention in past blogs that I believe that the Hospital visit starts from the time the patient enters the car park to the time the exit the car park, and not just the consultation with the healthcare professional.  It seems that with the competitive environment maturing in the US, that Hospitals are now actively seeking out patients with offers of goodies and VIP programmes to get them to go to their facility.  I can’t think of a better consequence of a competitive environment than the customer becoming important again.  It’s a shame the education system doesn’t work that way …… but that’s another story.

We have all had those days where we get to work and the day is just not clicking for us, from when the porridge was cold first thing in the morning to when we stubbed our toe getting into bed at night.  We have had the days also where we felt great after the run in the morning, the mood at the office was jovial and the day whizzed by in no time at all, and to top it off, the dinner on the table was your favourite.  The start and finish of the days made the process of thinking back on how the day went either a drag or very pleasant.  The start of the day affected how the rest of the day worked for you, or it just seemed like it did.  A trip to hospital is very much the same.  If practitioners want their patients to turn up in the best frame of mind to be cured, the healthcare administrators and decision makers need to understand that the journey starts in the car park.

Clearly the incentives put into the healthcare systems in the US are starting work, the patients are becoming important again.  To quote the article below, ‘Before managed care, hospitals focused more on appealing to physicians with new and advanced medical technologies, experts say. Physicians, it was thought, would bring in the patients.  Changes in health-care policies are giving hospitals added incentive to develop relationships with patients. Under the 2010 health-care overhaul, hospitals with higher than expected 30-day readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia will face financial penalties starting this year.’   I do long for the day where parking becomes important again and that it is not seen as an add-on stuck out the back, but an important part of the patient’s journey into and out of the healthcare system.  Fortunately, not all healthcare professionals are like the doctor I met on the Wednesday morning.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hospitals-offer-patients-free-parking-discount-shopping-seminars-and-screenings/2012/01/19/gIQAG9mZLQ_story.html

The Hospital ‘transaction’ is one that starts at the hospital Car Park and ends at the hospital Car Park.

The Hospital ‘transaction’ is one that starts at the hospital Car Park and ends at the hospital Car Park. In between they get assessed by the healthcare professionals.  I don’t mean to downplay the very obvious importance of Doctors and Nurses, far from it.  The day that your local hospital builders, designers and municipal bodies accept that people will arrive to a healthcare assessment in a much better state of mind, ready to be cured, if car parks are available, not too far from the facility and have great guidance to the various parts of the hospital, will be a good day.  Visits to the Hospital are about the journey and not JUST the all important bit in the middle.

Kevin Warwood

Car parking triumph

Lea Emery | 28th December 2011

BY THE middle of 2011, finding a free car park at the Bundaberg Hospital became akin to finding a winning Lotto ticket, prompting action.
The NewsMail demanded something be done in August, starting a petition demanding the State Government provide the hospital with adequate infrastructure.
Patients and visitors alike told tales of spending at least 15 minutes looking for a park, others spoke about how they ended up parking near the Mater Hospital and walking down.
Meadowvale cancer patient Jenny Heath told the NewsMail at the time that walking a long way back to the car after treatment was "not fun".
"For anybody who is sick or older, it can be difficult," she said.
Kalkie woman Dianne Farmer, who suffered a muscular condition, lamented the fact all the disability parking spaces were often also all taken.
"There is a gentle incline which makes walking to the hospital very hard (for me)," she said.
Businesses near the hospital expressed their frustration with the parking situation, saying it was inconveniencing customers and potentially costing them business.
Health Minister Geoff Wilson refused a meeting with politicians and civic leaders about the parking situation.
While signatures racked up, Queensland Health repeatedly emphasised that 25 more public car parks would be opened when the new rehabilitation ward redevelopment was finished and a further 30 would be finished with the completion of the Bundaberg Regional Cancer Centre in 2012.
After almost two months of campaigning and almost 2800 signatures on the News Mail petition, Mr Wilson announced a car park with 130 new spaces would be built.
Construction on the $230,000 car park started in late November and was expected to be open for business early in the new year.
But rain has delayed work on the site.
The car park was not the only development news from Bundaberg Hospital in 2011.
A more than $50 million development of the hospital was finally completed with the opening of the new rehabilitation ward in August 2011.
The expansion was more than two years overdue.
But Wide Bay Health Service District CEO Ken Whelan put the delay down to changing the plans to add more services and due to the weather.

Hospital Parking – Why paying for hospital parking is good for you

Charles Gordon of Ottawa this Week gives us an interesting perspective on the paying for parking at the Hospital discussion that has been raging in Canada for some weeks now since the report from the healthcare professionals claimed that paying for parking was hindering the patient’s ability to get well.  This would almost be satirical if it wasn't so true.  He sheds some 'common sense' light on the situation and places hospital parking in with its peers, airports, churches, shopping centres and universities .... that is, places where people will bring their cars and owners who need the revenue.

CHARLES GORDON / Ottawa This Week
Dec 08, 2011 - 8:57 AM

Why paying for hospital parking is good for you

Among the many arguments presented so far in the Great Hospital Parking debate is this one: If hospital parking were free, everyone would use it – doctors, nurses, volunteers, friends of people in the neighbourhood and people stashing their cars before catching the bus downtown. This would mean no parking left for patients and people visiting them.
If you turn the argument on its head, it means this: The only way to ensure that there is parking for hospital patients and visitors is to charge for it.
We have developed an extremely advanced and sophisticated society if we can come up with theories like this. In fact, it is a sure sign that we have moved well past Nineteen Eighty-Four, our slogan now being not “Freedom is Slavery” but “Free Parking is No Parking.”
A further 1984ish argument has also been published: namely that making parking free would encourage more people to drive, thus causing damage to the environment. “Paying for Parking Means Cleaner Air,” the slogan could read.
All of this comes about because the Canadian Medical Association Journal printed an editorial advocating the elimination of hospital parking fees, on the grounds that they constituted a barrier to health care, a hidden user fee and, therefore, a possible violation of the Canada Health Act.
Predictably, everyone has reacted because nothing gets Canadians more riled up than parking, with the possible exception of snow removal. And perhaps cable TV costs.
Horror stories abound, and you will have lived through some of them, particularly if a loved one has spent an extended time in hospital and you visited frequently. Doctors quoted by the Journal tell of patients who are more focused on parking fees than on what the doctor is telling them, or who even rush off before a full consultation because they don’t want to pay another hour’s worth of parking fees.
The hospitals say that they need the revenue. It is a tidy sum, although a small fraction of their overall costs. That it is necessary is the result of the province not giving them enough money. The provinces, meanwhile, won’t give hospitals the money because the feds won’t give the provinces enough money.
So, to reduce that to terms we can all understand, we are paying $13 for parking because the provincial and federal governments want to balance their budgets.
Not that they are having any success with that.
The conclusion to be drawn is that if we want hospitals to give us free parking we will have to help them find ways to raise more money. But how? They’re already selling handicrafts in the lobby, renting out space to donut shops, putting donors’ names on stuff, running galas and who knows what else. Perhaps they could sell chocolate bars. Perhaps they already do.
It is probably out of the question to bring back pay toilets.
The irony of it all is that many of the complaints about paying for hospital parking spaces would disappear if it were actually possible to find them. True, at some hospitals, such as the Riverside, parking seems ample, but at others, such as the Civic, parking is literally and figuratively at a premium.
If you could find a spot, and fairly close, you probably wouldn’t mind as much paying for it.
There are places you pay to park and places you don’t and there is not much sense in it. As some have pointed out, you don’t pay to park at the church or synagogue. Or the shopping centre – yet. On the other hand, they charge you to park at the airport and the train station. Why do they do that?
Answer: Because they can.
The hospital is in the same position. Going there isn’t optional. You go there because you have to and you pay whatever. Don’t forget that it helps the environment.

The Future of Work in the US is Healthcare (and Parking). Is it the same in other countries?

This is an intersting article where the author has found that the best place for 'safe' employment in the future, is in the Healthcare sector.  This is also good news for related businesses like parking.  It makes you think.

Kevin Warwood

THIS Is The Future Of Work In America

 There's a lot of debate about the future of labor in America: Will manufacturing ever come back? Will automation be a job destroyer? Will we all be freelancers working from home, shifting from gig to gig every 6 months?
It's all interesting to think about, but if you want to place one solid bet on the future of jobs in America, this chart would be a pretty simple place to start.
Regardless of where the economic cycle is, health care jobs just keep going up in a straight line.
The chart is even more impressive when you look at healthcare employment as a percentage of the civilian labor force.
The fact of the matter is that with society aging, the number of people needing healthcare services (and thus healthcare workers) seems like one, rock-solid secular trend that has almost no chance of not continuing.
Every time the latest jobs data comes out, we pore through a lot of information, and we can say with certainty that there's no other category that looks like this. Every other sector is affected by cyclical trends in some way.
What's more, if the country is ever going to get a handle on surging healthcare costs, the answer will almost invariably require MORE healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, walk-in clinicians), since expanding the supply is how you get the price of anything down.
If you want a job, this seems like your bet.

The Hospital Parking Conundrum

In modern Health care facilities, there are generally two methods for the control of parking, charging and enforcement, and in most cases the issues of charging for parking in hospitals are a 'contstraint' issue and not just about the money.

Most parking professionals, who have in healthcare parking, know that the main culprits on site are the staff who will park anywhere and use their status to escape the consequences of their actions (very big generalisation here). A clearly defined area for staff parking is required and then (especially if no charging is used) a complete and high tech Enforcement solution is required, with fines that will make the culprits think twice about repeating their actions. Being soft on these issue are just a method of creating problems in the future. Toughen up and back the patients and staff who want to park and follow the rules and isolate those who make the need for high technology and enforcement a must.

Hospital parking is the most complicated business case in parking, especially on the large hospital sites. To control the site is always going to be difficult and will never get full buy in from the users as you are annoying all parties of users.

If you take away the fees in this case, you must replace them with a full Enforcment system or the same doctors who complain that it impedes their practises will be complaining about the same thing as patients will struggle to find a car park.

 

 Hospital parking fees should be scrapped, journal says

November 28, 2011
Richard J. Brennan

Parking at North York General Hospital on Monday. The Canadian Medical Association Journal is calling for free parking at hospitals, saying exorbitant fees are interferring with patient care.

TARA WALTON/TORONTO STAR

 

It’s time hospitals abolished parking fees for the sake of their patients, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
In an editorial, the respected publication states hospital parking amounts to nothing more than user fees and is subsequently an impediment to health care.
Putting the proceeds toward health care runs counter to the Canada Health Act’s objectives and could become the subject of a legal challenge, writes Dr. Rajendra Kale, the journal’s interim editor-in-chief.
“Some patients (who have often waited several weeks to see a doctor) try to end a consultation abruptly when they realize that they will have to pay for an additional hour for parking,” he writes. “This is parking-centred health care, which is not compatible with patient-centred health care.”
David Montgomery, president of Haldimand War Memorial Hospital in rural southwestern Ontario, agreed.
“My own personal philosophy is that we shouldn’t have to charge patients and visitors. We should be doing whatever we can to make it easier for them to seek out care,” he said.
Montgomery added that War Memorial’s “favourable financial position” has helped them avoid parking fees — a luxury not afforded by many other Canadian hospitals that rely on the revenue as a source of additional income.
“We think what they are recommending is absurd and totally unrealistic,” Tom Closson, chief executive officer of the Ontario Hospital Association, told the Toronto Star on Monday.
It’s important to remember the province funds only 74 per cent of all hospital costs, or $17.2 billion, while hospitals in Ontario spend $23 billion, Closson added. “This is a portion of . . . what they need to pay the difference.”
The editorial notes hospital parking fees were abolished in Scotland in 2008.
“Little needs to be said about the plight of patients undergoing regular dialysis or chemotherapy who need to make an endless number of trips to the hospital,” Kale writes. “And what about parents who have to drive sick children to hospital?”
Many Canadians have no option but to drive, given the size of the country and the fact specialists are often located in larger urban centres, Kale argues.
Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition, a public health advocacy group, said scrapping “exorbitant” hospital parking fees makes perfect sense.
“What it means is that’s it’s a levy on the elderly and family members of people who are ill or people who are ill and require hospital care. It’s almost like charging them a user fee to see their doctor,” she said.
The CMAJ says the amount hospitals generate through parking fees is only a small amount of their overall budgets — in some cases, about 1 per cent.
Closson said that may not sound like a lot of money, but it represents $230 million a year across Ontario. “It’s quite a significant revenue source,” he said.
In Atlantic Canada, Cape Breton’s district health authority began rolling out paid parking to its hospitals in the mid-1990s to fund medical equipment purchases, said district spokesman Greg Boone.
Four of the district’s six critical care hospitals now charge patients and residents $3 each time they enter the parking lot. The fee, though small compared with the rate of major urban hospitals, is expected to generate over $900,000 this year for hospital programs, services and equipment, Boone added.
Justine Jackson, a senior vice-president and chief financial officer at Toronto’s University Health Network, said hospitals everywhere are looking to “make money so we can do more health care.” The network’s three hospitals — Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western — net about $6.5 million annually in parking fees.
“It’s not quite a user fee because patients do have a choice,” Jackson said. “They don’t have to drive. They can take public transit. So the fact that they prefer to drive is a choice they make.”
At Queen’s Park, Health Minister Deb Matthews noted “parking fees do not fall under the Canada Health Act,” so the province can’t control them.
But Matthews said people should raise the matter with their local hospital, pointing out some already give special rates to some dialysis patients or parents of children in neonatal units. “I would urge hospitals to have an open mind when people come with concerns about the fees,” she said.
Pamela Fralick, president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association, said in a “perfect world” it would be great to abolish parking fees. “But if we do remove this source of revenue, something has to give and my question would be what it is that we give up?”
With files from Robert Benzie and Niamh Scallan

The lowdown on parking rates — and revenues
Sunnybrook Hospital
1,200 parking spaces.
$4 per half-hour, $23 max per day at Bayview main campus (all figures are regular weekday rates)
Approximately $6 million projected parking revenue for this year
“About 90 per cent of parking fees go to fund scientists’ salaries and 10 per cent for research administration,” said Sunnybrook spokesman Craig Duhamel. “It would really be a major blow to our research infrastructure and our ability to pay for scientists salaries (if parking fees were abolished).”

North York General Hospital
1,700 parking spaces at the general site
$4 per half-hour, $18.50 max per day
$5.5 million projected parking revenue (for all sites)
Money raised from parking covers the cost of maintaining the lots and supports programs, said spokeswoman Elizabeth McCarthy. “If we didn’t have this money, we would have to consider cutting some services.”

The Hospital for Sick Children
970 parking spaces
$5 per half-hour, $30 max per day
4.5 to $5 million in parking revenue per year
Parking fee revenue is used to offset the hospital’s operating costs, said hospital spokeswoman Matet Nebres. “If this funding source was lost, SickKids would have to find other sources of revenue to support its current level of activity,” she added.

The Scarborough Hospital
599 parking spaces.
$3.50 per half-hour, $14 max per day
$3.6 million projected parking revenue for this year
Revenues support patient care

Mount Sinai Hospital
109 parking spaces.
$4 per 20 minutes, $20 max per day
$1 to 1.5 million projected parking revenue for this year
“Commercial and retail ventures, such as parking, generate much needed revenue to help support Mount Sinai’s programs and equipment upgrades to best serve our patients,” Mount Sinai spokesman Rob McMahon said.

St. Michael’s Hospital
20 parking spaces.
$4 per half-hour, $20 max per day
$122,000 projected parking revenue for this year
Funds are used to offset the hospitals operating costs-

University Health Network
1,238 parking spaces at Toronto General Hospital; 604 parking spaces at Toronto Western Hospital
$4.50 per half hour, $28 max per day
$7 million projected parking revenue for this year
“UHN generates net revenue of seven million dollars per year which is the equivalent of seven ICU beds or approximately 30 medical beds,” says Justine Jackson, University Health Network’s senior vice president and chief financial officer. “If we didn’t charge for parking, we would have to find the equivalent amount in savings which would affect patient care.”
Niamh Scallan