Pros do parking at Maui hospital

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

WAILUKU, Maui — Parking is so limited at Maui Memorial Medical Center that the hospital has hired a company to provide free valet parking.

The 196-bed Maui Memorial, the island's only acute-care hospital, is paying $5,000 to $6,000 a month to Republic Parking Northwest, hospital spokeswoman Carol Clark said.

The valet service is available from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays by driving directly up to the front lobby of the hospital, at 221 Mahalani St. in Wailuku. No tipping is required.

"Maui Memorial wanted to do something to assist in alleviating the parking crunch during our peak business hours to help our patients and visitors access the hospital until alternate solutions to our parking situation are provided," said Gail Miyahara, Maui Memorial's assistant director of business development and community affairs.

The hospital — part of Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. — has 200-plus attending physicians and 883 employees. To free up more parking spaces for the public, Clark said, arrangements are being made to have workers park at the nearby War Memorial Complex and take a shuttle bus to the hospital.

Also, construction of a 90-space lot begins this summer and another parking expansion is planned for the summer of 2005.

After years of lobbying, Maui Memorial officials won legislative support in 2002 for a $38 million general obligation bond that will provide a new multideck, 185-vehicle parking structure and a new four-story hospital wing.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.