Home Sweet Parking Lot: Some hospitals welcome RV living for patients, families and workers

Jim Weaver has had two major surgeries in the past decade: one to remove cancerous tumors from his bladder and another to clear a blocked artery.

Weaver, 70, knew that after he emerged from surgery, he'd want privacy. But because he and his wife drove more than 150 miles from Bend, Oregon, to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland, immediately returning home was not an option.

So, the couple brought their Escape 19 camping trailer, a small but comfortable home on wheels, and parked it in one of the hospital's 17 on-site RV parking spaces.