People hate hospitals. There is rarely anything good going on when someone goes to one. They are either visiting a sick loved one, or they are ill themselves and heading in for treatment. This makes parking mismanagement at hospitals all the more miserable.
The last thing that you need when you’re dealing with emotional turmoil and medical decisions is to have to figure out how the hospital’s parking operations work. These car park payment systems make this process simpler for both you and the hospital.
Parking Operations Offer Control
Have you ever driven into a parking garage only to discover that the garage was entirely full? You drove around the entire thing, but there was no spot available. Since the parking structure was free, unmanned, and unmonitored, it’s no wonder that this happened. There was no sense of control.
Hospital parking operations can’t be run this way. The people driving into them are distraught and worried. They don’t have the time or the emotional capacity to drive aimlessly through a parking garage. A system must be in place. This is where car park payment systems come into play.
A car park payment system is usually situated near the exits of these garages. The system collects payments after a ticket is inserted (the ticket is retrieved near the entrance to the garage) which determines what the parking fee is. The best thing about these systems is that they can electronically monitor exactly how many people go into and out of a parking deck.
When the structure is full, they won’t allow anyone else to enter. This prevents the people from wasting time driving around a full garage when they could be with their loved ones instead.
Parking Fees Pay for Upkeep
Many parking garages are located in urban areas where there isn’t a lot of parking. These structures are built over a traditional parking lot, and their many levels easily quadruple (or more) the available parking spaces. The main issue with them is that there is a lot of upkeep needed.
The hospital needs to take the time to patch up any crumbling concrete, make sure that the spots are clearly labeled and lined, and fill in any holes or cracks in the pavement. This costs money. Thankfully, those fees can be recouped with parking operations.
Charging people for parking is not a new idea. In fact, it’s been a practice for decades, especially in areas that have a limited amount of spots. While the fees charged by hospitals aren’t outrageous, they are enough to help cover the maintenance of the parking structure. The people who end up paying those fees are the ones visiting the hospital (many workers have designated lots or receive tokens that allow them to exit the garages without having to pay any money.)
The way that these works are simple. Many hospitals have an hourly charge, although there’s also a maximum that cannot be exceeded. When someone enters the parking structure, they take a ticket with the time stamped on it and a special barcode.
Then, after they do what they need to in the hospital and go to leave, they drive up to the car parking machine and insert their ticket or scan the barcode. The machine then tells them what they need to pay. It collects the fee from a debit or credit cash, or even in the form of cash, and then opens the barrier so that the people can leave. It’s as simple as that.
The Best Systems Are Unmanned
Parking operations can be a bit complex, especially when someone needs to be present at all times to collect money from the people exiting the structures. Car parking systems eliminate the need for these employees, as they are completely unmanned and fully automated. Some of them have a button that connects the person in the car to a security officer or the hospital’s front desk, just in case an issue arises.
For the most part, however, the people parking in the hospital’s lot are able to take care of the payments themselves. This eliminates the need for a specific parking employee. The hospital will save a bit of money there, and they won’t have the headache of having to keep that parking deck open and fully manned for long periods of time.
As you can see, parking operations for hospitals can be easily controlled with car parking systems. These systems are automated and easy to use. They can track the number of cars coming and going, making it easy to alert the front gate when the lot is full. When someone is heading to the hospital, the last thing that they need is issues finding parking and then exiting the lot. These parking operations take care of that problem.
