Northwest Community Hospital Complimentary Valet Parking By Abm

What I thought: Complimentary valet parking at a hospital? What a luxury and convenience!
In actuality: Waiting 40 minutes for my car with my just-​released-​from-​surgery patient friend, the hospital escort with a constantly ringing phone calling for her help in other parts of the hospital, the girl she was training in the lobby vestibule for the valet guy to even show up so I could give him my ticket to get my car back, which would take another almost 10 minutes. Not exactly ideal.
I should have know earlier in the day when I’d dropped my friend off at the front and then went to park in the hospital garage on my own because I had to wait to pull in the parking garage for an extended amount of time because there was a guy walking slow as molasses back towards the surgical center entrance. I assumed he was a patient, and I was patient and waited, of course.
When I returned to the hospital, I later found out that was the valet guy, just taking his sweet time.
So the story goes: I drop my friend off at the front entrance around 9am (there’s no valet guy present, though there are multiple signs. I park in the parking garage (about a 5 minute walk away from the surgical center) and go to meet my friend inside pre-​op. I leave shortly later to go run errands and take care of a few work-​related items around town. I come back to the hospital to pick up my friend and thought it’d be a good idea to valet my car so I can walk down with him after surgery and he doesn’t have to wait for me to run to the further parking garage to grab my car. This time, there is a valet guy present. The same slow guy I’d waited for earlier in the day. He hands me a ticket and makes sure to tell me they close at 6pm three different times. Ok, got it. You want to go home stat. Me too.
By the time my friend was released from the hospital, it was already 5pm. I went downstairs and waited with my ticket and a few bucks in my hand for tip as there was no one present anywhere. So we did what we could: Wait more. We waited, and waited, and waited for roughly 35 minutes before the valet guy came back to his post, in no hurry at all. I gave him my ticket, and it only took 8 – 10 minutes more, but it seems like this service that’s based on providing a convenience is actually hyper inconvenient, given the circumstances most people are there for.
Also, the hours they operate, I believe, are something like 9−6pm, but if you’re there for someone having a surgery, they likely need to be at the hospital before 9am, and even with the quickest and simplest of surgeries, you’d be hard-​pressed to make it out of the hospital before 6pm, so the service is really only useful for the people who are able-​bodied and could make the walk on their own. Not that a person who just had surgery would be able to drive, but the point I’m trying to make is that if you’re driving that person, it’s probably more convenient and faster for everyone to park in the garage and DIY.
The service is a free one so it’s hard to really complain about it, but if you’re considering using this free service, taking into account the lack of convenience could save you quite a bit of time.