Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, one of the state’s two Level I trauma centers, has offered parking spaces specifically for RVs since 2009, and it’s just one of many medical centers across the U.S. that offers patients, families and workers alike a place to live in privacy during their visits.
“Leaving that hospital with the bandage, the scar, and the rest of it, there’s no way I wanted to be in a hotel,” Jim Weaver, 70, told CBS News. “Being able to go down and stay in the trailer there, jeez, it was so huge.”
Weaver and his wife drove over 150 miles to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital for two major surgeries. Far from home, the prospect of staying in an RV during their stay proved a powerful one. And the Bend, Oregon, couple is not alone.
“There are towns in Montana that just don’t have hospitals,” Kallie Kujawa, chief operating officer at Montana’s Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center, told CBS News. “We had a couple who came who could not find anywhere to stay in town. This was the only place they could find to stay. And that was critical for them.”
Patients have been parking campers at the Montana medical center for years. The medical center has even established an RV parking program to assist patients, workers and their families.
In Salida, Colorado, RV parking lots can be a major boon for hospital staff. From new employees in the process of house hunting to nurses working consecutive 12-hour shifts, RVs have proven to be a game changer at Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center.
“It’s been very popular, to say the least,” Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center CEO Bob Morasko told CBS News. “I just know that it works. And it helps us staff the hospital.”
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