Why Valet for Hospitals Makes Sense

When one hears the term “valet service,” what comes to mind is a swanky restaurant or five-star hotel. Having professionals at the front door to greet guests and park vehicles is a luxurious convenience that saves them from the hassle of parking and makes them feel important and pampered. Considering how stressful it can be to park at a busy hospital when someone is concerned about their own health or the well-being of a loved one, doesn’t it make perfect sense for a hospital to offer healthcare valet parking?

Offering hospital valet parking services or healthcare valet for a medical building helps patients and visitors and provides cost benefits for the facility.

How Do Valet Services Help Patients?

There are several ways that hospital valet parking services can help patients.

• Eliminates the Stress of Having to Self-Park – Hospitals and other patient care facilities can be extremely busy with vehicle traffic, and it can be stressful to find a parking space. A patient may be trying to get to an appointment or guests may be anxious about a loved one. Having a friendly valet greet them and park their car takes away that stress.
• Allows Patients or Visitors to Text Ahead for Their Vehicle – When the patient is done with their appointment or the guest has completed their visit, they can text for their vehicle so that it’s waiting for them when they arrive at the front door. 
• Ensures That Patients and Their Guests Feel Well Cared For– Having a helpful valet to park their vehicle and provide directions to their destination makes patients and visitors feel more comfortable. A large, sprawling hospital campus can be overwhelming, so a helpful, knowledgeable professional is greatly appreciated.  
• Provides a Welcoming Feeling the Moment They Arrive – A professional valet service such as FC Parking doesn’t just park cars and retrieve them. They warmly greet patients and guests, assist those with mobility issues and guide them to where they’re going. In a healthcare environment, visitors may be already feeling challenged by the circumstances, so it’s especially helpful to be met by someone who cares about their well-being.  
• Frees Up the Closest Self-Park Spaces for Guests – Some guests may wish to park their own vehicles. For those individuals, a valet service means that more desirable spaces close to elevators and entrances will be available. There will also be fewer cars driving around, looking for a space.  
• Greatly Reduces Traffic Around a Busy Facility – With hospital valet parking services, the flow of hospital traffic is better organized. Vehicles arrive to a central location and professional valet drivers move them to a pre-determined lot. The process is reversed when the person is ready to leave, greatly streamlining arrivals and departures and reducing bottlenecks.

Offering a healthcare valet parking service helps to enhance the patient experience and goes a long way in providing overall customer satisfaction. 

Are There Cost Benefits to Valet Services for Hospitals?

Patient satisfaction is extremely important for hospitals and other healthcare settings — not just for garnering positive reviews and enhancing their reputation, but also for improving the organization’s bottom line. 

Cost benefits for hospitals that offer valet service include:

• Medicare reimbursements are tied to HCAHPS scores – Patients rate their hospital stay using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. They rate the hospital on a scale of 0 to 10 and indicate if they would recommend it to friends and family. Ease of parking figures strongly into the overall patient experience.  
• Organized traffic flows get patients to appointments more efficiently – Faster arrivals and departures helps to reduce missed or late appointments, allowing for more efficient scheduling so hospitals can see more patients.
• Freeing up parking spaces in lots boosts self-parking availability – More self-park spaces and easier parking leads to greater garage revenue.
• Smoother departures improve turnaround – Text-in vehicle retrieval streamlines the departure process, so that patients can be on their way and rooms can be more quickly prepared for new patients.

Do Valet Services Improve Patient Satisfaction?

If you have any doubt that a professional valet service can enhance patient satisfaction, consider this 2015 survey of seniors (who account for nearly 70 percent of all hospital discharges). The survey found that their impressions of a hospital’s parking situation was second only to their impressions of the building’s lobby. A healthcare valet service will help put your patients and their visitors at ease.