FAIRMONT - Fairmont Medical Center President and CEO Dr. Phillip Vuocolo unearthed a boon for area parochial schools in the basement of the hospital.
Vuocolo and other staff were below level when he noticed a storage room of used computers sitting idly by.
In that room he saw an opportunity to help the community by donating the equipment to local schools.
"I felt that this was a great way to find a use for the computer equipment that FMC can no longer use and simultaneously fulfill part of our mission to the community - namely that of helping educate the community," Vuocolo said.
The medical center is in the process of updating its technology in preparation for a switch to new electronic medical record guidelines in 2011. The computers in the basement, though some only five years old, didn't make the cut for the specific needs of the new system, but according to med center communications coordinator Jason Howland, they work perfectly fine for typical program needs.
St. John Vianney received 30 computers and monitors; St. Paul's Lutheran School in Fairmont got four computers with monitors; St. Paul's Lutheran School in Truman took seven; and 30 flat panel monitors were given to Martin Luther High School in Northrop.
Howland said the equipment was offered to the public schools as well, but they declined the offer.
St. John Vianney principal Joan Schaffer said the new computers were used to update classroom computers, which were an amalgamation of older models. The donated computers allow students to have Internet access in their classrooms instead of just in the computer labs.
"(We are) very grateful for the computers we received from Fairmont Medical Center," she said. "This will help keep us up to date on technology and there's no way we could afford this many computers at one time."
This is the first time the medical center has donated computers to area schools. Howland said the medical center is constantly upgrading technology and the older stuff was typically sent to Rochester for use elsewhere or recycling.
All of the computers were cleansed of any medical center-related data.
Howland said each of the schools would have accepted more equipment, and additional monitors and CPUs will be available later this year. For more information about receiving equipment for school use, contact information services director Rob Nicoson at (507) 238-8136.
