Miami, FL... Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) has been named one of the nation’s “Most Improved and Most Wireless Hospitals,” according to the 2003 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study released by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. MCH is the only freestanding pediatric hospital in Florida to be given Most Improved and Most Wireless distinctions.

“Hospitals are empowering patients with information and providing tools to doctors and nurses to improve quality,” says Alden Solovy, Executive Editor of Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, which has named the 100 Most Wired hospitals and health systems annually for five years.

“Our patients and their care are at the heart of our technology initiatives,” said Don Lewis, Executive Director and Chief Information Officer at Miami Children's Hospital. “We continually seek new methods of enhancing patient care quality and safety.”

The fifth annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study was conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks in cooperation with McKesson Corporation and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). It measures the nation’s hospitals on their use of Internet technologies for safety and quality, customer service, disaster readiness, business processes and workforce issues.

More than 400 health systems responded to the survey, representing 1,128 hospitals or 19 percent of U.S. hospitals. The 25 Most Improved winners were awarded based upon a comparison of this year’s answers to the previous year’s. The 25 Most Wireless winners were named based upon their ability to connect via mobile devices.

Founded in 1950, Miami Children's Hospital is the only licensed specialty hospital for children in South Florida. The 268-bed medical complex offers medical care and services for children from birth to age 21. The facility treats more than 185,000 patients each year and has expertise in all aspects of pediatric medicine.

Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, conducts the Most Wired survey annually. McKesson Information Solutions is a division of McKesson Corporation, the leading provider of supply, information and care management products and services designed to reduce costs and improve quality across health care.