By By Dan Hounsell

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted healthcare facilities managers to rethink nearly every process, component and operation in order to protect the health of visitors, staff and patients. Eliminating touch points to prevent the spread of illness has been a high priority for managers in achieving these goals, and the rethinking even extends to parking operations.

In late 2020, Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., was faced with a decision to replace its aging parking access system, according to Health Facilities Management. As part of a health system with 8,000 parking spaces spread across several facilities, the medical center estimated that to replace its parking system with a traditional but updated and payment card industry-compliant version to accept credit card payments would have cost it $1.5 million.

Instead of choosing a traditional system where users take a ticket when entering the gate and use a touch-pay station to exit, Brookwood decided to implement a contactless parking system with no upfront capital costs.

The technology allows patients, visitors and staff to access parking facilities without reaching outside their car or touching any equipment. Instead, when users drive to a Brookwood facility, all they need is a mobile phone.