The Mott Family Network is now connected to patient bed areas throughout Mott Children’s Hospital, allowing patients and their families to access the computer network for free. At project completion, 137 computers will have been installed, with a total of 250 network connections available. This bedside network gives patients the ability to access the Internet, view E-mail, watch DVD movies, play games, and use educational software that enables them to keep up with school work during their hospital stay. It is username- and password-protected to give young patients secure and appropriate access to the Internet, based on their parent or guardian’s requests. “Supporting our patients and their families has always been our number-one priority at U-M,” says Patricia Warner, M.P.H., Associate Hospital Director and Administrator, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. “We’re very proud to be the first hospital in the Midwest to offer our patients and their families this bedside computer network. The Mott Family Network certainly is a phenomenal effort made possible by the generous donations of individuals and corporations, and especially our U-M volunteers.” In fact, the Mott Family Network was recently named “Program of the Year” by the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers. The $1 million computer network project was made possible by charitable donations. The hospitals’ annual Mott Golf Classic, a charitable golf outing designed to help children and their families visiting Mott, raised funds for the purchase of 75 computers and conduit and printing supplies. Additionally, nearly 70 U-M employees from across the university and medical center have volunteered hundreds of off-shift hours to design, wire, build, and install the computers. Other donations came from CISCO Systems, Inc., DELL Computers, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and IBM. These donations generously provided funding, maintenance support, software, and hardware for the project. |
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