Patients, visitors now offered free parking at UF&Shands

January 10, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When you’re already concerned about your health, the last thing you want to worry about is paying to park your car. That’s why starting Monday, UF&Shands, the University of Florida Academic Health Center, began to offer free parking to patients and their families and guests.

“Quality is Job 1 at UF&Shands, and convenient access is an important part of quality. In this spirit, free parking is an important step in our continued commitment to improve the patient experience at UF&Shands,” said Dr. David S. Guzick, senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “We want to make it as easy as possible for patients and their families to receive the care they need from our world-class physicians and facilities.”

UF and Shands employees and their dependents already receive free parking when they are patients at clinical practices on campus. This initiative extends that courtesy to all patients on campus, relatives and other guests who accompany or come to visit them, and to patients visiting Shands outpatient pharmacies.

Patients and their visitors will receive parking vouchers at their point of service, and on exiting the parking areas they simply need to hand the vouchers to the attendant on duty. Free valet parking continues to be available for patients at the Shands Critical Care Center at UF, Shands at UF Chest Pain E.R. and Shands Hospital for Children Pediatric E.R.

The more than $1.5 million annually needed for garage maintenance and related costs paid for by parking fees will be shouldered by UF faculty practices and the Shands at UF medical center. Approximately 2,000 people per average business day use the three garages and two lots designated for patient use on the UF&Shands Gainesville campus.

Non-emergency valet parking for patients and their visitors will be $3 plus a parking voucher. Certain other visitors such as non-UF students doing clinical rotations and job applicants on official visits to the UF Health Science Center or Shands at UF qualify for parking at $4 per day in visitor garages or $6 per day for valet service.

More details, including a fact sheet, answers to frequently asked questions and other resources, are available at http://shands.org/freeparking.

“Our patients have been waiting to hear the words ‘free parking,’” Guzick said. “We are excited to be able to say those words and to keep exploring new ways of improving patient care at UF&Shands.”