City: Kansas City, MO

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (816) 234-3000

Address: 2401 Gillham Rd.

Description: You and your child will immediately know this is a special place when you see the lobby filled with bright colors, children’s artwork on the walls, and physicians who often wear Hawaiian shirts instead of white jackets. The hospital’s history can be traced to 1897 when two sisters, Dr. Alice Berry Graham, a dentist, and Dr. Katharine Berry Richardson, established the Free Bed Fund Association to treat “sick, crippled, deformed, and ruptured” children from families that couldn’t afford health care. Today the Children’s Mercy health care system includes the state-of-the-art, 194-bed hospital in Kansas City, busy outpatient clinics in midtown, and a hospital in suburban Johnson County. The hospital serves children from birth to age 18 and provides outpatient care in 35 pediatric subspecialties. Children’s Mercy has the region’s only Level I pediatric trauma center and emergency department as well as a Level IV neonatal intensive care nursery. Along with providing the very best care possible, the hospital caters to young patients’ emotional needs. Little ones are encouraged to bring a favorite stuffed animal or doll along with them, which promptly receives a bracelet that matches the child’s. Kids can get an online tour of the hospital with Mercy Bear, with helpful tips for parents along the way. The hospital continues to expand its services, thanks to several generous gifts from Kansas City citizens and annual fund-raising efforts. It is involved in a 10-year, $129 million expansion that will increase services at the two locations and continue its ongoing research programs in genetics, cancer, neonatal, immunology, and nursing. The sisters who began this service with one child more than a century ago would be proud to see that their work continues: Children’s Mercy provides more than $20 million in charity care per year.