Patients of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston depend on the hospital's valet parking service to help them get to and from their appointments, especially when they may feel weakened by treatment. However, high demand for valet parking can create long backlogs of patients waiting to return to their vehicles, according to the Houston Chronicle.
MD Anderson's valet service workers parked more than 385,000 cars in 2015, which comes out to more than 1,000 cars per day and up to 130 per hour, according to the report. The hospital has five valet stands on its main campus.
Although the contractor-operated valet parking system usually runs smoothly, clogs caused by Houston traffic occasionally slow it down. During slow periods of the day, patients might wait less than 10 minutes to retrieve a valet-parked car. However, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., the average wait rises to 24 minutes. Some patients have reported even longer times, according to the report.
"Our goal is a 12-minute wait," said Diane Confer, MD Anderson's director of campus services, according to the report. "We're not quite there yet. Some of it is just logistics."
The hospital has made several improvements to its valet parking system over the years to increase efficiency, according to the report. In 2012, the system upgraded from an old-fashioned radio-based system to a modern automated one.
Now, when a patient drops off their car at a valet stand, Republic Parking staff scans a barcode on the vehicle and gives the driver a valet ticket, which is color-coded to indicate which drop-off stand it was left at. Patients can retrieve their car from any stand, but going to a different one can add to the wait time, according to the report. On their way out of the hospital, patients pay for the valet service at an indoor desk. As soon as the valet staff scans the ticket, the parking garage is automatically notified.