Because most people drive to hospitals, hospital parking lots are the first impression patients have of smart hospitals. To provide a patient-centered friendly environment, in February 2021, National Cheng Kung University Hospital incorporated “PSS Smart Parking 5.0+,” a smart cloud parking guide service, to build a high-tech, convenient, innovative, and safe parking environment.
(I) Online real-time parking space inquiry
People can search for a parking space online in real time and decide in advance the traffic route they are going to take to park their vehicles. This will alter their conventional habits of looking for a parking space as they drive, reduce the time and energy consumed in the process, and improve the air quality at parking lots.
(II) Smart license plate recognition system
A high-performance, single-chip Advanced RISC Machine design was used to develop a license plate recognition system. When a vehicle arrives at the induction coil range, the license plate recognition system will automatically turn on. Once a license plate is recognized, the barrier will automatically move upward. As the driver drives into the parking lot, the system will automatically identify whether the vehicle belongs to an employee or a guest and will store the vehicle’s entry images to its database.
(III) Parking space detection service
The entire parking lot is equipped with a parking guide system, which substantially reduces the challenges visitors face while seeking a parking space. Parking spaces are equipped with lights. A green light indicates availability, whereas a red light indicates occupancy. This enables drivers to rapidly identify available parking spaces from afar.
(IV) Smart automatic payment machine
Users can pay for parking simply by entering their license plate number. After they pay, the screen of the payment machine and the receipt will state the location where their vehicle is parked, thus helping users easily find their vehicles. The smart automatic payment machine resolves the problems associated with the use of conventional parking tickets. It can reduce cost, problems of losing parking tickets and paying penalties, and the likelihood of germ transmission from using physical parking tickets.
(V) Diversified payment methods
Payments at the smart parking lot are no longer limited to using a single machine. Users can pay online using a QR code with credit cards, smart cards (e.g., EasyCard and iPASS), or mobile payments. Cloud electronic receipts are also available on the system to save paper and reduce the problem of users forgetting to collect their receipts.
(VI) 24-h customer services available to solve problems anytime
The parking lot has a cloud internet intercom that connects users to a 24-h customer service team. During an intercom call, the central control computer screen will automatically display onsite surveillance images to help provide timely and appropriate support to the users.
Through the aforementioned efforts, we provide a comfortable parking environment and service, save users’ time, reduce parking-related expense, overcome several management obstacles and predicaments, improve benefits, reduce operational costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and allow the hospital to focus on developing the medical aspect of its operations so as to improve its medical service quality. Moreover, the parking lot company we collaborate with can expand their business and gain popularity. Thus, we achieve a win–win situation for the hospital, its visitors, and the parking lot company. By providing smart parking services upon people’s arrival at the hospital, we have moved closer to becoming a smart hospital.
