Free valet service at Adele Hall Campus makes positive first impression

It’s been more than a year since valet parking service was introduced at the front entrance to the Adele Hall Campus of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. In that time, it’s earned positive reviews from patients and their families, hospital employees, and the valets themselves. Valet assistance, contracted through ABM Healthcare Support Services, has been available for several years at the Children’s Mercy emergency entrance. It was expanded to the front entrance last summer at the urging of hospital employees who, in working with patients and families, saw an opportunity to make their visits for surgery, lab work, dental, radiology or other clinic appointments more convenient.

“People can pull up under the canopy at the main entrance, and valets will help them unload, then park the car,” said Phil Lawler, Director of Security/Transportation at Children's Mercy. “It means that patients and families can be inside and on their way instead of spending 10 minutes driving around the parking garage looking for a place to park.”

The service is available from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; families of patients staying past 5 p.m. can retrieve keys from Security. Four to six ABM employees cover both the Emergency and main entrances and can float between the two locations if there’s a rush at either one.

About 30 parking spaces in the visitor garage are reserved for valet-parked vehicles. Valets also help those who are dropping off bulky items like donated blankets, books and toys, or patient visitors who need assistance. In a typical month, the main-entrance valets will park about 1,000 vehicles and assist with unloading an additional 650 cars or trucks.

The service is offered free of charge — and free of tips — and is one more way Chilren's Mercy brings value to patients and families.

Read the full story via Healthcare Facilities Today.