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Hospital parking: The real cost for patients (CBC Marketplace)

Jun 06, 2021
this week on Marketplace how far

hospital

s will go to make money by raising

parking

rates is a tax on my cancer

patients

how much do you think you have spent on a

parking

spot being a thousand

patients

and loved ones take risks to cut

cost

s some fight back is The strange thing is to be ashamed of them and push for a change in case the families assume the

cost

of the

hospital

. We're in Abbotsford, British Columbia, using this smart car for something you might not think is smart at all. We are trying to get a parking ticket on this. hospital on purpose looking nearby waiting for the ticket man who is that we want to know where the money for those tickets goes we will find out later on the other side of the country Heather Stewart takes her daughter Catherine to another doctor's appointment Catherine is a cancer patient, they stop at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario but Heather isn't parking at the hospital come back in a couple minutes guys hey drop off Catherine and her brother Jeffrey then drive to the mall where parking is free and Heather isn't the only one trying to save money. patients and their loved ones undertake a long, treacherous walk struggling down a slippery path help injured there you can see the paths across the field of everyone hitting the hard ice okay, all because they can't pay $16 for parking time at the hospital, madam I work, so we I didn't do it at first, but now, shouldn't the cost?
hospital parking the real cost for patients cbc marketplace
The hospital has become a second home for Heather and her daughter Catherine Catherine just went into isolation Five years ago she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of cancer. I have a wish. trip because I do in the Centers my desired trip was to go to Disney World come and have a lot of fun your family tries to make the best of the difficult times between a series of medical appointments how many days did you spend in the hospital in 2011 147 days one hundred and forty-four seven in one year she says the care is excellent but what she said is having to pay for parking every visit to the hospital is a lot of stress it's a lot of stress with our daughter diagnosed I'm not able to work how much do you think you've spent on parking over the years? over the years?
hospital parking the real cost for patients cbc marketplace

More Interesting Facts About,

hospital parking the real cost for patients cbc marketplace...

Hmm, there will be thousands. A portion of that change is spent here at Toronto Sick Kids Hospital, like many hospitals. Sick children say they use the money for patients. careful parking six dollars every half hour stay more than an hour and a half you have reached the daily maximum of twenty dollars and now the hospital has also eliminated the parent discount rate so you no longer get a family discount this increases by 25% and that's astronomical in my opinion hospitals across the country in Red Deer Regina Winnipeg Niagara Falls and Truro Nova Scotia only a few that are raising their rates many say they don't receive enough funding from provincial governments so more and more have uncovered their parking lots they are money makers in Toronto sick children parents are so nervous they start a petition asking for an affordable rate a thousand people sign I am

real

ly disheartened by this insensitive rate increase, shame on you, why should hospitals treat families of this way to earn money?
hospital parking the real cost for patients cbc marketplace
It's just another slap in the face to parents who have already been emotionally and financially exhausted. Heather points out the number of times I've driven in that parking lot and our daughter is nauseous. I do not have any other option. I can't park three blocks away. away, but they won't bring back the parent discount, we have to choose our battles and right now, whatever is best for our daughters, what has to be our battle, that excites you, yeah, yeah, what are you thinking at our? friends and some who are not as fortunate as us who have had to say goodbye to their children and what the future holds and it's just hard it's hard to have more and more and more how parking increases that stress it's not financial it's and it's a huge factor, we wonder how people across the country are affected by the hospital parking rate market.
hospital parking the real cost for patients cbc marketplace
A Commission national survey of 1,000 people asks whether parking fees have added stress to their hospital visit. 72% say yes in Abbotsford BC. A cancer specialist sees patients stressed about parking all the time now Dr. Bob Winston is speaking I think parking fees Is there a fine for having an illness? It's a tax on my cancer patients. He believes parking at the hospital should be free. People have paid taxes, so their healthcare should be covered. That includes parking. What are some of the things you've heard. Some patients have told me no, they can't come back because they don't have the money.
Actually, they said I'm going to have to omit it, omit it, yeah, in our national survey. We also asked if parking fees have affected how often you visit the hospital or how long you stay. 52 percent say yes. My patients benefit greatly from hosting family and friends. They help patients eat. They help patients do physical therapy. They walk through the halls and walk. Going down to the lobby, so any inhibition of providing support to patients is wrong. Darry Kristen sure has been a help to her sister Evelyn over the past month. She has lost so much memory that she doesn't remember what happened this morning.
Please note that last week or last year Evelyn was just diagnosed with a brain tumor at Abbotsford Hospital, like many hospitals you have to pay for a meter before you go in so you have to estimate how long you will be in now , we'll probably go. being here for two hours, everything, do you ever worry about the meter running out? You visit your sister constantly, we constantly run out of emergencies, hoping you won't miss the doctor when she comes and puts more money in the meter. talking about a cancer diagnosis, prognosis or therapy and someone is looking at her watch and says: I'm going to go out and pay the meter and I'm going no, you can't, you have to stay here if you miss it. gets a ticket and that's what happened Terry gets a $48 fine oh it was just one more thing one more thing on the day we had had terrible news about my sister that they weren't sure what was wrong but they knew it was a brain tumor of some kind and then finding out that I was going to get a parking ticket because I was trying to be there to help her was actually a little more than I was willing to endure under all the stress.
Terry misses the deadline to pay. and the fine goes up to $80 we wonder how much of that money goes to patient care, so we went back to our ordeal at abbotsford hospital to get our own fine, we put hidden cameras in our car, then after an hour parking ticket, we let it expire and waited for the ticket man to be aware that we are going to take action to fight back. You can understand why people in this country are so fed up and why they allow a private company to make money off of the sick patients we are with. a surveillance at abbotsford hospital in bc watching close 27 minutes we could get a ticket while trying to get a parking ticket on purpose look at the patrolman he sure is handing out a lot of tickets today and now he's heading our way check our car and enough insurance he writes us a ticket for $48, more than double the price of a ticket from the city of Abbotsford, so how much of that goes to the hospital? fines from in Park, Canada's largest parking management company, more and more hospitals are turning to private companies like embark to manage their lots we ask for an interview at Park no one will talk on camera we track down an imp Ark Erica Insider Corrie caravel used to be a senior accounting manager there why would a hospital need a company to manage their parking? a parking management company that will help you generate income.
I guarantee that any parking management that runs a hospital has a significant additional revenue stream for the hospital. Just check out this proposal for hospitals we found on the parks website that maximizes parking revenue. In tough times, what are some of the ways that the parking company maximizes the amount of money it makes for its customers through ticketing violations and that ensures that its revenue matures because the people who park there know that they can get fined, so they're going to be more likely to pay, which is proven time and time again with the lots where they have a compliance program and our revenue peaked last year.
Abbotsford hospital got almost a million and a half dollars not far from Abbotsford in the city of Delta BC I. had a daughter who died of breast cancer Louis Jackson remembers the added pain of parking fees when his daughter died in a Kamloops hospital four years ago and you have someone in the hospital, maybe they're not going to make it and you're struggling to get change. it's wrong Jackson is a mother with a personal story but she is also the mayor of Delta and is considered a hero in this fight, son Canaan Ian, I don't know why we are so mean to people who are already messed up, you know, I want say.
They already taxed enough for everything a couple of years ago Delta Hospital was scheduled to have parking meters installed, but Mayor Jackson and her council intervened and passed a law to ban them, so when you come to this hospital you park and walk right in for free What did the health authority tell you about your move? They were not very happy and said that everyone has to pay for parking in the entire region. I said well, we have a regulation that only allows parking meters and we will be attentive. it by law and to those who say hospitals have to charge to make up for budget shortfalls I say sharpen your pencils, we should find that money elsewhere in the system since Delta and Abbotsford hospitals are under what is called the freezer health authority, we meet. with his media guy Erica Johnson, the contract guy, Thorpe, the door word where patients should be in a doctor's appointment thinking "oh, I have to plug in the meter" is that what would happen to them head no and we hope not, and that's why our response to fines is flexible and doctors say that's what's happening, people are worried about running away and leaving meetings with them, you know, these are absolutely issues that we heard about and are committed to responding to, I guess right now We're looking to strike a balance between our need to charge for hospital parking to maintain the lots, making sure there are spaces there and also addressing those concerns when we hear , but you are making profits from patients and their families, yes.
We are making money that goes toward providing health care services, so how much of our parking ticket money goes toward providing those health care services? Just listen to this, where does the money from parking tickets go? Who gets that one? you stay with the parking management company, so in this case you get to park, which is partly why you get every penny of this fine. Yes, nothing goes to the hospital. No, we think Terry Christin might want to hear what we've learned. Remember he paid $80 for a fine. she got while she was helping her sister at the hospital, unlike the fees you pay at the parking meter, when you get a parking ticket, she partly keeps all that money.
I didn't

real

ly know that nothing goes to the hospital, everything is for them. Oh, so they'd love to fine as many people as they can, right? And we learned that there may be another reason why they love to fine you. It turns out that every time they write a ticket, they earn a commission, why do they allow a private company to do it? making all this money at the expense of sick patients one of the reasons we have stayed away from fines is that the ultimate authority was certainly reserved for us to waive fines so that there is no conflict, there is no incentive for them to fine much if they are going to make a commission every time they fine someone, yes, I am not aware of that circumstance at all.
Do you think it is a good idea? No, I don't think so at all, so if we were informed please note that the lots were being patrolled more heavily and therefore fined more frequently as a result, so if this is a concern that was raised with us , we can investigate it shortly. Would you like to try to get your money back? a message from parents to Canada's largest children's hospital. I have something here. We just have to save this for me. Terry Kristen had to pay $80 for a fine she received at the Abbotsford hospital after her meter expired while she was inside helping her get sick.
Sister, would you like to try to get your money back? I would like to try it, but myI'm sure her chances of doing that are slim to none, so we showed Terry's ticket to Roy Thorpe d'Or who speaks for the hospital and now she wants her money back because she found out he's doing well. to impart that none of that will go to this hospital. Here is something you would do to get your money back from her. We are committed to being compassionate and flexible. I can investigate. Of course, nine days later we received a response and we finally have good news for Terry.
She will get the 80 dollars back from her in Toronto. Heather Stewart brings Kathryn back with sick children and without that discount from her parents. Heather is spending another $60 here this week alone. Lots of questions for Sick Kids, so we sat down with Executive Vice President of Corporate Services, Jim Garner. Hi, I'm Erika Johnson, welcome sick kids, why did you eliminate the parent discount? We analyze our policy in this regard and compare it with others. healthcare institutions across Canada and we look at all children's hospitals in Canada. Have you noticed the impact it is having on parents?
We certainly considered across the board all relevant impacts and this was an issue that, as you can see, was widely debated and discussed. in all the various divisions and departments of the hospital involving the highest levels of management and you decided to get rid of the family discount and we decided to change our fee structure and go to a harmonized daily rate but offer the ability to purchase discounted passes. Parents don't want these weekly, biweekly or monthly passes. They don't need the stress of trying to figure out how often they are going to park at this hospital.
Why not just give the parents what they want? Better daily parking right here. Being a member of a hospital administrative team, you really have to find a balance between family-centered care and the fiscal responsibility to the hospital that we cannot assume. the total financial responsibilities that families experience in the event that families bear the cost of the hospital it is inevitable that an unfortunate situation where these types of experiences create emotional, social and financial difficulties in families last year sick children earned 5 million in parking fees sounds like a lot, but compared to all their revenue, parking money is a drop in the bucket.
The money you make from parking is less than 1% of your total income. Is it worth all the stress you are causing families? We are in a very restricted government. financing, as you know, I mean that Ontario is going through a difficult time fiscally and that experience is being transmitted to all public sector institutions in general, including hospitals, so in the exercise of our work, we cannot , we can't, we can't. Consider any source of income. What if we said this is such a small portion of our total income and yet it is creating so much hardship for so many families who are stressed at night and can't pay their other bills?
They have had to make decisions there. Some of them are crying about this, but sick children can be responsible for the entire costs of a treatment. A child is going through a complicated illness. They don't want it for free. They just want something they can afford and that isn't free. we're going to go broke we have something to show garner i have something here i just think you better keep this to me these are the names of a thousand people could have signed a petition asking for better parking rates at their hospital and they use words in this petition like the hospital was scratching.
They are being greedy. They say the price of parking charged at this hospital is shameful. What do you say to these hundreds and hundreds of people who signed this petition and who are desperate? first we need a better parking rate, we say we understand and appreciate the financial and emotional difficulties that you go through during a treatment in the hospital, listen to them, they want a better parking rate, what I would say is let's try The hospital tries to do everything possible in a responsible and balanced way to support families. The first thing they do in this request is request a meeting with you, which they never had.
Will you commit right now to sit down with this group and talk? about their parking rates. Wicked's regularly meets with groups on various topics and we will be very open to meeting with any group to be answered in the affirmative, as long as it is a constructive meeting. Well, we have your word on that. Well, he agrees. to meet the parents, but should I leave this request to them? We have a copy of a thank you to let you know that there are thousands of people who are unhappy with their parking rates, but they are not going to give in while Heather is about to pay for parking somewhere else. hospital taking Catherine and her cousins ​​to cheer up Heather's mother who just received treatment for breast cancer, emotionally and financially difficult - you can't keep putting more stressors on families who are already stretched thin families need help families really need help help that does not come until hospitals put aside the idea of ​​making money from people who suffer

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