Many parents of children with cancer have unpleasant memories of driving around in endless loops looking for a parking space while their child was throwing up in a bucket in the back seat (or even worse, when the bucket was left at home). Some hospitals charge patients to park and some do not. The hospital might have both long-term and short-term parking arrangements. If your hospital charges for parking, the nurses or the patient advocate can tell you whether parking passes are available or where the cheapest parking is located. Some hospitals have valet parking, which may be as cheap as self-parking for a short appointment.

I had no idea that the hospital gave out free parking passes to their frequent customers. Now I tell every new parent to check as soon as possible to see if they can get a parking pass. It will save them lots of money that they would have spent on meters and parking tickets, and time that they would have spent running out to move the car out of the emergency parking spot.