Tuscaloosa’s DCH Hospital ends under-utilized 28-room hotel program

DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa will soon end a program that provides patients and their families with affordable housing before or during a hospital stay.

In a memo released earlier this month, hospital administration informed employees that DCH would end its guest room program on September 1 and begin converting the 28 rooms designated for that program.

The program, unusual in hospitals, offered on-site accommodations to patients and families visiting a DCH facility.

Someone who needs to undergo an early morning procedure can stay overnight or, if they are having a series of treatments or procedures over several days, can save travel time by booking one of the rooms offered in the DCH Medical Tower I.

The program is also popular with patients seeking cancer treatment and families with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The rooms, in single and double rooms, offer guests the most important amenities of a hotel, including a refrigerator, telephone and coffee maker, as well as cable TV in every room.

Rick Plummer, vice president of marketing for DCH Health Systems, told the thread that the hotel program is underused.

“The hotel space is not used on a regular basis and we know the space can be used more efficiently by expanding outpatient clinical services,” he said. “Hotel space is not a service that hospitals typically offer. While we know it will be an adjustment for some, we are confident the change will help DCH better meet the growing medical needs of the communities we serve.”

The program ends on September 1st.

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