Palomar Medical Center adds valet service

By: ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer
Pilot program tries to ease parking crunch | Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:14 AM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO -- Palomar Medical Center visitors looking to skip the hassle of finding a parking spot at the hospital during peak hours can now let valets stow their vehicles for a small fee. View A Video

Launched earlier this month on a trial basis, the service is available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the hospital, at 555 E. Valley Parkway.

Visitors who get their claim tickets validated by receptionists in any of the hospital's departments before retrieving their cars pay $2 per day for the service. Cost without validation is $5.

Hospital officials said they hope the program will help ease a peak-time crunch that often leaves people coming to the hospital for outpatient treatments or tests or to visit patients circling the grounds until one of about 995 parking spaces open up. About 400 of those are in a garage on the north end of the 14.5-acre campus.

"We've been looking at different ways to address this for a long time," the hospital's chief administrative officer, Gerald Bracht, said Tuesday. "Our first foray was getting employees to not park on campus. ... This is sort of like the next phase."

Cars can be dropped off and picked up just inside and to the right of the Grand Avenue entrance to the hospital. If the program is successful and visitors like the service, it could be expanded to include a second car drop-off and pickup station at the front of the hospital, said Bracht.

Palomar's parking situation ranks high on a list of problems that Bracht and other Palomar officials get complaints about regularly. Built in the 1950s and 1960s, the medical center sits on the east end of Escondido's downtown area and is surrounded by businesses and homes.

The public health care district that runs the hospital, Palomar Pomerado Health, plans to expand the facility. The bulk of the project is not scheduled for several years, though, leaving the hospital landlocked for now.

Cars belonging to the 800 to 1,000 employees who work at Palomar Medical Center each day add to the problem. In 2004, hospital and city arts center officials struck a deal that lets up to 80 employees park at the center during the day, then hop a free shuttle to work.

At least one San Diego hospital -- Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla -- also offers valet parking.

Kevin Matsukado, Palomar hospital's director of safety and security, said Palomar Pomerado Health's board of directors wanted to see if doing the same at Palomar would improve its visitors' experience.

Hospital parking lots F and G are now earmarked for cars left with the valets. While that took about 23 parking spaces out of the mix of outdoor slots available to people who do not want to use the service, some stalls inside the garage that previously were reserved have been opened up to make up the difference, Matsukado said.

His initial observations have revealed that, so far, the valet parking program is a hit with hospital visitors, he said.

"Everybody from the young to the elderly (is using it)," said Matsukado. "I stood there for a couple of hours the other day, and all the individuals were saying, 'Hey, I can't find parking.' So they're taking advantage of it."

-- Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.