I received your letter dated February 25th and the attached complaint regarding the condition of the parking lot at the Weinberg Women’s Center at 8:a.mon February 23, 2015, following a snowstorm the day beforeThe Weinberg Women's Center is a non-profit clinic operated by Pregnancy Aid Centers, Inc(“PAC”), that serves the needs of women and families in Prince George’s CountyI am the Executive Director of PAC.Our patient had an appointment that morning, but when she arrived, she says, she was concerned for her safety due to the icy condition of the parking lotUnfortunately, like everywhere else in the county, the conditions were difficult following the stormOn balance, we decide to open the clinic rather than cancel all of the appointments for the day, which would have been very disruptive for our patientsOf course, the patient who lodged the complaint could have rescheduled her appointment due to the weather, but instead she decided to proceed to the clinic and, fortunately, made it safely across the parking lotShe says that a staff member assisted her into the building, and that the staff person apologized for the state of the parking lotAfter her appointment a staff person made sure she got safely to her carOn the morning of February 23rd there were patches of snow and ice in the clinic parking lotBefore opening for the day, a staff member had shoveled the walk and spread the last of our salt supply on the lotAnother staff member was out in the community trying to buy more salt, but none of the stores had saltAt the same time, I called the City of College Park Department of Public Works to get some assistance, but, like us, the City had also run out of saltAfter several calls to various vendors, I was finally able find someone who would sell us some saltThe salt was purchased from Trippe Supply Company and delivered by 10:00am(See attached invoice)The salt was then quickly spread on the lot by our contractor, MrVasquez, with whom PAC has a contract to plow and salt our parking lots following stormsAs you can see from the attached invoice from MrVasquez, he plowed and salted all of our lots on January 23rdI am truly sorry that the customer felt she was not safe walking through the parking lotHowever, we did everything possible to get the parking lots maintained as soon as possibleWe prefer to keep the clinic open, if at all possibleOur patients often have to arrange to take time off work or to get childcare in order to keep appointments, and it can be very disruptive to them when we are unable to open the clinicThe patient who complained also says that she tried to call me three times and got no responseUnfortunately, I never received any message from herPAC and the Weinberg Women's Center each have a 24-hour answering serviceThe offices receive messages from the answering service every morningIn addition, every telephone in our offices is equipped with an answering machineI did not receive a message from the customer nor did the receptionistsHad I received a message I would certainly have returned her callWe take the safely of our patients very seriously and do our best to maintain our parking lotsFollowing a major storm, however, there are often conditions that are less than idealIf a patient ever feels that conditions are such that it is unsafe to venture out, I would urge her to reschedule her appointment for another timeSincerely,Mary M [redacted] J [redacted] , LCSW-C Executive Director
I received your letter dated February 25th and the attached complaint regarding the condition of the parking lot at the Weinberg Women’s Center at 8:a.mon February 23, 2015, following a snowstorm the day beforeThe Weinberg Women's Center is a non-profit clinic operated by Pregnancy Aid Centers, Inc(“PAC”), that serves the needs of women and families in Prince George’s CountyI am the Executive Director of PAC.Our patient had an appointment that morning, but when she arrived, she says, she was concerned for her safety due to the icy condition of the parking lotUnfortunately, like everywhere else in the county, the conditions were difficult following the stormOn balance, we decide to open the clinic rather than cancel all of the appointments for the day, which would have been very disruptive for our patientsOf course, the patient who lodged the complaint could have rescheduled her appointment due to the weather, but instead she decided to proceed to the clinic and, fortunately, made it safely across the parking lotShe says that a staff member assisted her into the building, and that the staff person apologized for the state of the parking lotAfter her appointment a staff person made sure she got safely to her carOn the morning of February 23rd there were patches of snow and ice in the clinic parking lotBefore opening for the day, a staff member had shoveled the walk and spread the last of our salt supply on the lotAnother staff member was out in the community trying to buy more salt, but none of the stores had saltAt the same time, I called the City of College Park Department of Public Works to get some assistance, but, like us, the City had also run out of saltAfter several calls to various vendors, I was finally able find someone who would sell us some saltThe salt was purchased from Trippe Supply Company and delivered by 10:00am(See attached invoice)The salt was then quickly spread on the lot by our contractor, MrVasquez, with whom PAC has a contract to plow and salt our parking lots following stormsAs you can see from the attached invoice from MrVasquez, he plowed and salted all of our lots on January 23rdI am truly sorry that the customer felt she was not safe walking through the parking lotHowever, we did everything possible to get the parking lots maintained as soon as possibleWe prefer to keep the clinic open, if at all possibleOur patients often have to arrange to take time off work or to get childcare in order to keep appointments, and it can be very disruptive to them when we are unable to open the clinicThe patient who complained also says that she tried to call me three times and got no responseUnfortunately, I never received any message from herPAC and the Weinberg Women's Center each have a 24-hour answering serviceThe offices receive messages from the answering service every morningIn addition, every telephone in our offices is equipped with an answering machineI did not receive a message from the customer nor did the receptionistsHad I received a message I would certainly have returned her callWe take the safely of our patients very seriously and do our best to maintain our parking lotsFollowing a major storm, however, there are often conditions that are less than idealIf a patient ever feels that conditions are such that it is unsafe to venture out, I would urge her to reschedule her appointment for another timeSincerely,Mary M [redacted] J [redacted] , LCSW-C Executive Director