“The Inn Crowd” Honored at SMUCLA

Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital (SMUCLA) honored eight local hotels in February for their generous support of the “Room at the Inn” program. Participating hotels that were honored, included: The Ambrose, Best Western Gateway Hotel, Casa del Mar, DoubleTree Guest Suites, The Fairmont Miramar Hotel, Hotel Carmel, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and Shutters on the Beach.

Under this unique program, the hotels provide complimentary stays to patients’ family members who live outside the area and cannot find or afford local lodging to remain near their hospitalized relatives. More than 30 families benefited from the program in 2008.

Posie Carpenter, chief administrative officer, SMUCLA, personally thanked hotel representatives who attended the luncheon. “Your generosity enables us to better meet the complete needs of our patients because having family members or other support persons nearby can be healing in itself,” she said.