$10M Mott Foundation grant will help expand complex care spaces at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital

By Mike Wilk, Michigan Medicine | Photos provided by Michigan Medicine

University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital is once again taking steps to advance pediatric medicine and improve the lives of children with the most complex medical needs.

A $10 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to U‑M will enable C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital to renovate space within the Brandon Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Reese Partlow Pediatric Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (PCTU), which admits patients in need of critical cardiac care and complex heart procedures. This renovation project will add much-needed beds to the PCTU.

“For decades, people all over the world have looked to the University of Michigan and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital as leaders in health care,” said Santa J. Ono, Ph.D., president of U‑M. “The steadfast support of the Mott Foundation over the years has empowered us to continue innovating, advancing, and making pioneering progress in pediatric medicine.”

“This project is an inspiring example of how support from our community can make a transformative and life-changing difference for families who come to our hospital from across the state, throughout the nation and around the world to receive the highest quality care for their child,” Ono said.

Over the past few years, the hospital has seen a steady increase in high-risk births, requiring a greater number of NICU beds to care for a growing number of infants. To accommodate this increase in volume, PCTU beds have been converted to care for NICU babies, including the renovation of multiple rooms to support twins.

With the U‑M Congenital Heart Center at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital serving as a national and international referral center for patients with congenital heart defects, pediatric heart surgery cases have also been on the rise. This has left the Brandon NICU and Reese Partlow PCTU with a need to update the spaces they use to care for their expanding patient populations. 

The Mott Foundation grant will support a plan to renovate areas across the 8th-floor NICU and 10th-floor PCTU at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The new NICU will be able to accommodate the 13 NICU beds currently occupying the converted PCTU spaces on the 10th floor. The PCTU will return to its original 30-bed capacity.

Once these new spaces are completed, teams at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital will be able to accept more outside transfers and elevate leading-edge treatments and therapies that can enable children with the most complex conditions to survive and thrive.

“The Mott Foundation’s vision and support over the years have helped our hospital to not only provide world-class care for the most complex patients, but also adapt to the changing needs of our communities,” said Luanne Thomas Ewald, MHA, chief operating officer of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.

“Whenever our Little Victors and their families needed a place to look to for greater hope and options for care, the Mott Foundation has stepped up. Their grant to expand our pediatric intensive care spaces will increase our ability to provide beds, monitoring, and world-class care to medically complex children from across the state of Michigan and beyond,” Thomas Ewald said.

The NICU and PCTU renovations are planned to start in the first half of 2025, with completion targeted for the end of 2026. Care will not be interrupted on either unit during the renovation process. The NICU and PCTU will continue to operate at full capacity, ensuring that children and families will not lose any access to the care they need.

“Since it opened, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital has been at the forefront of pediatric medicine, with leading-edge technology and treatments, expert teams of care providers and researchers, and extraordinary facilities,” said David Miller, M.D., president of U‑M Health, executive vice dean of clinical affairs in the U‑M Medical School, and professor of urology. “This generous grant reinforces a commitment we share with the Mott Foundation to ensure that our children and families are able to find the best possible outcomes and a greater chance to live happy, healthy lives.” 

The Mott Foundation has been a steadfast supporter of children’s health at U‑M for six decades. In 1969, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital first opened with $6.5 million in grant support from the foundation.  

In the time since, the Mott Foundation has continued to support the children and families who seek care at U‑M. The foundation provided a $2 million grant for a major hospital renovation in 1984 and another generous $25 million grant to help build the current C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that opened in 2011.

“The Mott Foundation has always been committed to improving the well-being of residents in our community and beyond,” said Ridgway White, president and CEO of the Mott Foundation. “We are proud to build on our long-standing relationship with C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and look forward to seeing the committed staff at the hospital continue to make a difference for children and families across Michigan and around the world.”

About the Look to Michigan campaign

This grant is part of the Look to Michigan fundraising campaign, which aims to create transformative answers to health care’s biggest challenges for the benefit of people in our state and beyond. Building on 175 years of leadership in medicine and as part of the University of Michigan’s Vision 2034 strategic framework for impact, we are breaking new ground in patient care, research, medical and graduate education, health equity, and health care facilities. Together, we can improve and save lives. For more information, visit michiganmedicine.org/giving/look-to-michigan.