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Loading...Are Hospital Parking Fees a Health Issue?
When his father suffered a life-threatening illness, Dr. Brian Goldman, veteran ER physician and medical broadcaster, spent three weeks visiting him in three different Ontario hospitals. The care was excellent, but the parking tab was nearly enough to send him into cardiac arrest: more than $500.
That made him wonder about other Canadians’ experiences. When he asked for stories, he was inundated with e-mails, calls and blog posts. So he recorded a program called “Park Your Frustration” for his weekly White Coat, Black Art show on CBC radio.
Parking Problems Add to Hospital Stress
Dozens of people complained about troubles finding a spot, problems paying and annoying rules and procedures. Goldman said the complaints had one common thread: “They made you feel like the hospital didn’t care about you.”
The biggest issue was cost. At a time when people are most vulnerable and need the support of family and friends, many hospitals add high parking fees to an already stressful experience. Goldman pointed out,
“Let’s not forget that with hospital cutbacks, loved ones and friends are taking on an increased burden of care of hospitalized patients,” he said, noting family members often feed loved ones, take them for walks, help with physiotherapy and perform other unpaid duties.
“The idea that hospitals don’t give a break on parking fees to those individuals is unfair.”
In the broadcast, one nurse pointed out that mall parking is free and added, “What does that say about society?”
Joanne, a registered nurse in Ontario, received a call that her father was dying. She had just gone home after a visit but turned around and sped back to the hospital. She and her mother stayed at his bedside until her father died. When they went out to the parking lot, they both found three expensive tickets tucked under their windshield wipers. Joanne took the tickets into the hospital. Through tears, she told her story and asked for a break. The response was, “Tough luck, lady. You should have come down and put more money in the meter.” Later, when she went to city hall and threw them on the mayor’s desk, the tickets quietly disappeared, but the callousness of the hospital staff member still rankles.
Laura wrote that she has to go to her hospital for regular treatments. Her county has no public transportation or taxi service. The city charges $0.30/hour for parking. The hospital charges $3.00/hour or $20.00/day. She writes, “I understand supporting my hospital but lately I feel like I’m funding my hospital.”
Matt spent fifteen minutes driving around a full hospital parking lot in Halifax and then had to pay $3 to get out. He ended up parking illegally at a grocery store, where the $15 ticket was less than legitimate parking would have cost him.
Read more: health care, health policy, hospitals, parking
First photo from bkornprobst via morgueFile; second photo from Arnold C via Wikimedia Commons
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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Luvenia! Agree with you.
Of course the dog knew the nature of the person and that he was a threat. Dogs spend such a long time…
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46 comments
+ add your ownAll these paid parking lot schemes are a racket!
i work as a delivery driver for a sandwich shop near a big medical center consisting of tons of hospitals and specialists. all day i have to park in parking garages and lots that charge you by the time you spent parked there. it always saddens me when im driving out of the cancer centers parking lot, seeing all these sick people having to dig around for yet more money to pay to just leave the parking lot...so sad
Hospital parking fees suck!
At some hospitals, it is a private company that is looking after the parking. Most of the revenue is not even going to the hospital.
I agree that patients shouldn't have to worry about parking fees, but charging money for parking is completely normal, so it's not really that weird or anything that they do it. But, maybe there should be a special free parking for patients and a normal parking with a reasonable fee for visitors and such or something?
I have many health problems, and go to the doctor/hospital several times a month, often 2-3 times in one week. Repeatedly, I have had to reschedule appointments with my cardiologist, family practice doctor, etc. because I didn't have money to pay for parking. It's reprehensible.
thanks
Thanks for posting.
Up until 2008, I worked at a hospital in Arlington Virginia. The hospital had recently built a new hospital tower on the old employee's parking lot. For a time, there was talk that employees were going to be charged to park in the new underground parking garage. The fees being proposed were not insignificant. The idea was scrapped after much protest. It is, however, not uncommon for hospitals to charge their employees to park. Most of the Washington, DC hospitals do routinely. Hospitals are nothing more now than businesses that care more about their bottom line than the welfare of either their employees or their patients. They literally almost killed me when I was forced out of my job along with 55 other Emergency Department employees (all RN's except 3. ) A new manager was hired with the apparent goal of eliminating the older, higher paid employees. I was so stressed out by the whole thing and the ramifications of losing my job that I was having major heart palpitations and had to seek medical care for same. I never was able to find another job and am, technically, still unemployed which I suspect is a result of my age - 58. Age discrimination - Illegal but happens every day. My opinion of hospitals in general and medicine as it is practiced in this country is very low. We need a national health program.
Up until 2008, I worked at a hospital in Arlington Virginia. The hospital had recently built a new hospital tower on the old employee's parking lot. For a time, there was talk that employees were going to be charged to park in the new underground parking garage. The fees being proposed were not insignificant. The idea was scrapped after much protest. It is, however, not uncommon for hospitals to charge their employees to park. Most of the Washington, DC hospitals do routinely. Hospitals are nothing more now than businesses that care more about their bottom line than the welfare of either their employees or their patients. They literally almost killed me when I was forced out of my job along with 55 other Emergency Department employees (all RN's except 3. ) A new manager was hired with the apparent goal of eliminating the older, higher paid employees. I was so stressed out by the whole thing and the ramifications of losing my job that I was having major heart palpitations and had to seek medical care for same. I never was able to find another job and am, technically, still unemployed which I suspect is a result of my age - 58. Age discrimination - Illegal but happens every day. My opinion of hospitals in general and medicine as it is practiced in this country is very low. We need a national health program.
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