Children's Mercy Hospital
Children's Mercy Hospital is a 367-bed comprehensive pediatric medical center in Kansas City, Missouri, that integrates clinical care, research and medical education to provide care for patients ages birth to 21. The hospital's primary service area covers a 150-county area in Missouri and Kansas. Children's Mercy has received national recognition from "U.S. News & World Report" in nine pediatric specialties. The hospital was the first in Missouri and Kansas to receive Magnet Recognition for excellence in nursing services from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and has been re-designated five times. Children 's Mercy Hospital is the primary location for Children's Mercy Kansas City, a comprehensive pediatric health system with multiple locations in Missouri and Kansas. The not-for-profit hospital was founded in 1897 by two sisters, one a surgeon and the other a dentist, to provide care for poor and ill children. The hospital quickly grew and expanded services to all children in the region. According to the hospital's Community Benefit Report, in 2019, the hospital provided more than $64 million in uncompensated care, which includes charity care, unreimbursed Medicaid and other means-tested government programs, and  subsidized health services. History. Berry sisters. Katharine and Alice Berry came to Kansas City from Wisconsin in 1893. They put each other through school; Katharine being the first to get her medical degree while Alice worked as a school teacher, and then Alice obtained her dentist degree—both male-only professions during the 19th century. The women were excluded from professional medical groups because of their gender, and their entrepreneurial spirit discouraged. But the two persevered and due to their widowed status, were permitted to control their own finances, which they poured into their medical work with children. Children's  Mercy Hospital was founded in 1897 when Dr. Katharine Berry Richardson, now a surgeon, and her sister Dr. Alice Berry Graham, a dentist, found a crippled, malnourished girl abandoned in the streets of Kansas City, Missouri and treated and cared for her at a rented bed in a hospital. Since no hospital in the city allowed a woman physician on the staff, the sisters continued treating patients by renting beds in a small hospital. The bed soon became known as the "Mercy Bed", and the need for health care for children continued to grow. The sisters formed the Free Bed  Fund Association for Crippled Deformed and Ruptured Children and in 1901 adopted the Mercy name; changing it to The Children's Mercy Hospital in 1919. At first, the public ridiculed the sisters' work, especially the Berry sisters' ardent belief of women-only staffers. Many believed women should work in the home and not be physicians. But as the hospital progressed and showed miraculous outcomes, the ridicule lessened and public opinion soon helped the hospital strive. Giving all they had, the sisters bought a home in 1903 to work as a hospital, sheltering children. The sisters and few staff members begged  for supplies, volunteers, and monetary support. Dr. Kate (Katharine Richardson) would keep a sign near the street, letting the public know the needs of the hospital, such as the basic comforts of new sheets, pillow cases, bath towels and canned food. In 1915, construction on what would be the first official hospital began at Independence Avenue. The hospital flourished in its new home until 1970, when it moved to its current location on Hospital Hill. When Hurricane Katrina first hit New Orleans in August 2005, Children's Mercy (along with other hospitals) sent helicopters to Tulane Medical Center, Ochsner, and  CHNOLA in order to help evacuate pediatric patients from the hospital. Along with helicopters, CMH sent two C-130s to aid in large scale evacuation of pediatric patients from New Orleans. Timeline. Significant events in the hospital's history include: Branches. Children's Mercy is spread out over 18 sites in two states, with one hospital in Overland Park, Kansas and another in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Research. The research program at the Children's Mercy Research Institute features 375,000 square-feet of dedicated clinical research space and over 100 physicians and scientists actively participating in research studies. It is one  of the 10 stakeholder institutions in the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, which also includes the University of Kansas, MRI Global, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Stowers Institute. The hospital's research is focused on four areas of emphasis: The hospital is one of 13 designated Pediatric Pharmacology Research Units. Hospital clinical pharmacologists work closely with the Pediatric Trials Network, researching and developing accurate drug doses and devices for children. The hospital's Genomic Medicine Center was termed "among the most technologically advanced in the world" in a January 2014 Bloomberg article. In 2012, the hospital 's Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine's development of a rapid whole genome sequencing approach was named one of "Time" magazine's Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs. Clinical care. Children's Mercy Hospital is located on the Children's Mercy Adele Hall campus. Hospital services include a Level 1 Children's Surgery Center; a Level 1 Trauma Center; a Level IV Intensive Care Nursery; heart, liver, kidney, blood and marrow transplant programs; and more than 40 pediatric subspecialty clinics. Academics. Children's Mercy is an Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education institutional sponsor. Graduate medical education focuses on the development of  programs based on the ACGME core competencies and the acquisition of clinical skills. Children's Mercy is academically affiliated with University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and offers a pediatric residency program that annually accepts 24 categorical pediatric residents, three preliminary residents, and six internal medicine/pediatrics residents. Residents currently hail from 42 medical schools representing 25 states throughout the United States and two foreign countries. Children's Mercy also offers 28 pediatric fellowship programs to train the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. In addition, Children's Mercy is designated a principal pediatric teaching hospital for The University  of Kansas Medical Center. In 2013, Children's Mercy, The University of Kansas Hospital, The University of Kansas Medical Center, and The University of Kansas Physicians announced they were working to develop a single, integrated pediatric program allowing the institutions to enhance clinical care for children, advance pediatric academic development, expand pediatric research initiatives, and strengthen advocacy activities on behalf of children in the Midwest and surrounding region. Expanding its boundaries beyond the Midwest, Children's Mercy has established educational partnership programs for foreign residents and for its own residents study abroad. Children's Mercy has formal relationships with hospitals  in China, Panama and Mexico. Rankings and performance. Children's Mercy Hospital is one of 89 facilities in the United States that made national rankings in at least one of 10 pediatric specialties analyzed for the 2021-22 Best Children's Hospitals, by "U.S. News & World Report". The hospital has consecutively been nationally ranked in at least nine of the ten pediatric specialty areas: The highest ranking is nephrology at #10. In 2013 "Parents" magazine ranked Children's Mercy at #14 among the country's best children's hospitals. The hospital has also been designated a "Magnet Recognized" center by  the American Nurses Credentialing Center, won the "Gold Achievement" award for a fit friendly work site in 2012 by the American Heart Association, and has been designated as Kansas City's Healthiest Employer by the Kansas City Business Journal in 2013. CMH's Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine has been termed "among the most technologically advanced in the world". Naming rights. On November 19, 2015, Children's Mercy announced a ten-year partnership with Sporting Kansas City. The deal includes Children's Mercy getting the naming rights to the team's stadium, now named Children's Mercy Park, as well  as the team's training center and the championship field and training center at Swope Soccer Village. The partnership focuses on strengthening the community by improving access to pediatric-trained sports medicine; protecting youth athletes and providing education to coaches and parents. In 2017, the hospital opened a Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center at the United States Soccer Federation National Training Center, in Kansas.