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Care Begins in the Garage

When patients and their visitors come to a UK HealthCare facility, they depend on finding safe, convenient, and reliable parking. As the services and availability of clinical care continues to grow across the UK HealthCare enterprise, patient access to convenient parking is critical to the day-to-day operations and our overall mission.

To ensure that parking is always available for patients and patient visitors, UK HealthCare  established Policy A10-055 which details the policies and procedures specific to designated patient and patient visitor parking areas. 

University of Kentucky employees, students, associates, contractors, construction workers and other unauthorized individuals parking in UKHC lots and structures in violation of UK HealthCare Policy A10-055 are subject to steep penalties, including a $100 fine for unauthorized UK HealthCare patient and patient visitor parking. UK employees may additionally be subject to corrective personnel action for a first violation and escalating corrective action for repeated offenses.

Parking Policy Compliance

Ideally, all members of the University community would adhere to the established parking policies. Unfortunately, a small minority of employees, students, and university associates knowingly park in violation or are willfully ignorant of the established policies as an excuse to avoid accountability. For this reason, parking enforcement is a necessary component of the broader parking management effort.

Policies have little substance without consequences. While parking citations are generally considered punitive and come with a financial penalty, the primary focus of the citation is to notify an individual of a policy violation (educate) and promote compliance with established policies (change behavior). 

UK Transportation Services’ technology and support services and parking enforcement divisions work collaboratively to assure compliance. Our technology and support services division utilizes best-in-class fixed license plate recognition (LPR) cameras at the entry and exit to UK HealthCare patient parking facilities, while our enforcement division deploys mobile LPR camera equipped vehicles. The resulting license plate data is then analyzed for trends and for alignment with typical shifts, class schedules and adjacent housing assignments. When patterns are identified and policy abuse is suspected, Transportation Services will flag suspected vehicle to monitor all future parking activity more closely. If further unauthorized parking is identified, the vehicle is then issued a citation.

 

Unauthorized UKHC Patient Parking Citation Appeals:

Transportation Services attempts to ensure that unauthorized parking citations are scrutinized before issuance, but mistakes can occur. Please contact us if you receive a citation but were parking in compliance with established policies and regulations. Our staff will thoroughly review the circumstances and data associated with the violation.  We work directly with the UKHC Office of Workforce Management to verify employee time reporting and the Office of Patient Experience to conduct appointment verification to exclude legitimate authorized use of patient parking.

If you were parking as a qualified patient or accompanying a qualified patient to a medical appointment or treatment, you may be asked to provide the patient’s name and appointment date and time, as part of this citation review process. Transportation Services uses this information to validate medical appointments through the Office Patient Experience. This limited information is not HIPPA protected information and Transportation Services does not have access to any medical record or treatment information as part of the verification process.

When a citation is found to have been issued in error, Transportation Services will void the citation. In instances where Transportation Services deems a citation to be justified, but the recipient of a citation disagrees, that individual may file a formal appeal through the University’s appeal process.

Policy A10-055

UKHC is committed to a patient-centered philosophy and therefore designates specific parking areas to accommodate the access needs of patients and their visitors.

Please take a moment to review UKHC's parking policy, which applies to all University of Kentucky students, employees, and associates.

A10-055 Policy Details