You Might Live in a Hospital If - You Have a Rating System

When you go to Vegas you want to stay on the Strip, and if possible in a five-star hotel. If you're trying to impress a girl, or a client, you take them to a five-star restaurant. Some people [not us] spend their honeymoon at a five-star resort. Titanic was rated by many, not me I refuse to see it, to be a five-star film. Seems to make sense that five stars is the most you can get, and to get five you have to be good.

So for the sake of competition, let's get some ratings out there. I'm going to tell you who has the best and worst of everything from pillows to paninis. We'll rate all kinds of things from the four hospitals we have visited since Molly was born in August. At the end we'll add up all the stars and see what we find. To make it easier on me I'm using a four-star system and ranking them against one another. Four is the best and one is the worst; anything in between is just in between.

Category: General

Parking - it's easy to find parking at all four places and there are an adequate number of spaces in all four places as well. I've never been unable to find a spot in any of them. Visitors, on the other hand, find it more difficult to park in some than others. RWJ validates for $2; CHoP $3, but their rates are far higher; Princeton ocassionally has no attendant so it's free; St. Peter's garage is the most accessible.

****SP - Close proximity to the hospital; validation; good rates for those who can't (or forget to) get validated.
***UMCP - Close to hospital; plenty of spaces; good rates; chance for free exit.
**RWJ - Pretty far from hospital; good validation; decent rates; limited spaces.
*CHoP - Really far from hospital; good validation; expensive rates; limited spaces; bizarre phenomenon where it might take 20 minutes to get through the line to exit the lot.

Security - The strange thing about all these hospitals is none of them are in particularly nice neighborhoods. Even UMCP, which is in the town of Princeton, is in the least attractive part of town. So security could be an issue. Some of these places have a human presence, others have electronic security, some have pretty much nothing.

****CHoP - They'd get more stars if I were giving out more than four. You can't get anywhere in the building without showing your bracelet. Someone checks you at every door and before entering any elevator.
***RWJ - There is a security person at the main entrance, but you don't have to check in with them or anything. They make their points in that every door is locked and has to be opened by someone looking at you on camera. You press the button; they ask you why you're there; they open the door; then they check you out.
**SP - They have someone at every door. I was actually detained at one point while they checked my ID and called up to the floor Molly was on. They lose points because this happened the night after someone entered the building and snuck into multiple patients' rooms to play with their feet. It was on the front page of the paper.
*UMCP - How can they be worse than SP you ask? Well they have no security at all. When Gavin was born my buddy, Tall, rolled in with a six of Miller Lite and a large Conte's and made it from the parking deck all the way to our room without anyone saying a word.

Physical Plant - These hospitals vary quite a bit in size. They also span the spectrum in age. They're all completely different from the next.

****CHoP - This place is gigantic. And it's modern. And it's fancy.
***RWJ - It looks pretty new from the outside. The Children's Hospital is brand new. There are some places that look pretty dingy inside, but for the most part it's nice.
**UMCP - It's small in comparison, and from the outside it just looks like a building. It's not terribly fancy, but it's not bad. The rating system is inflexible; it's third best.
*SP - If I could give it fewer stars I would.

There will be more categories. Scoring will be cumulative. So far it goes like this: CHoP (9), RWJ (8), SP (7), UMCP (6).