We’re really appreciative to the team at Parking Services for taking the time to respond to Medical Staff questions about parking:
What plans are in the works to address Medical Staff parking issues?
- Parking Services continues to audit the RJH campus for opportunities to improve parking.
- Audits are conducted at key times, and include a physical survey daily M-F (0700 to 1600) for several months to obtain a confident view of the use. The standard Parking practice is to perform a data collection from the key months of the year where patient load is highest (i.e. winter months and spring), and to engage with leadership to review current business and patient load.
- Two key areas that are in current review are the Administration Building Reserved lot and the Parkade. An increase to Physician parking is being considered as part of this review.
- Parking Services is always open to shifting parking allocations when we have the required data to support a shift without adverse affect (unintended parking consequences) to any of our user groups.
What advice can I give the physician who does not park in public spots with their physician pass, since they had been ticketed for doing so?
- Physicians can park in public parking stalls with their active Physician Parking Permit, or they can pay public rates and park as a public person. As a first choice a Physician should occupy a Physician stall, so that stalls can be available for arriving patients to park. Physicians can park in Public, but patients cannot park in Physician parking.
- A Physician Permit does not authorize parking in any area identified with local signage: Accessible parking, street meters, patient/outpatient specific stalls, BCC (BC Cancer Agency), restricted areas, short term, and staff (including reserved).
- It has been my experience (short of a possible patrol error) that a Physician that parks in a public area and received a violation is for the following conditions:
- No valid permit displayed or payment purchased
- Parked in an area not authorized for Physicians (see above list)
- In the event of a patrol error, a Physician may contact the Parking office for support identifying the reason for the ticket and possible remedies.
Important Parking Note for Physicians and the use of the RJH Parkade:
- Based on audit data, the RJH Parkade continues to be underutilized by Physicians. There is capacity in the Parkade to support an increase of Physicians parking.
- Physician access to parking in the parkade is captured in the Public stall count and not restricted to the staff count. If the staff entrance FULL sign is on, this has no bearing on the Physician access. Pay attention to the Public Full Sign and not the Staff Full sign!
- If a Physician requires access to the Parkade they will use their hospital door access card to swipe and enter the Parkade.
- They need to complete a RJH Parkade Access Request Submission Form and email it to Parking Services in order to gain that access. Parking Services will contact Security Systems and have their access granted.
Would any consideration be given to offering a punch-card style parking pass, as many physicians only work on site one day a week, but are required to pay public rates to do so?
- Yes. Parking Services would very much like to create another level of payment system for the Physicians.
- A pay as you go digital app system is currently being reviewed by Parking Services for Physicians and employees. This involves software systems to implement and at this time we have no specific timeline.