Healthcare
How One Kansas City Hospital Treated Segregation in the ‘50s
Queen of the World Hospital was a beacon of unity at a time when black and white citizens were segregated. “Non-white” Kansas Citians – categorized as black and Mexican at the time – had limited options for health services.
Hospital Hill Construction Boom Continues with $70M University Health 2 Project
By Kevin Collison The building boom at what’s now being branded the “UMKC Health Sciences District” aka Hospital Hill is continuing with the kickoff of the $70 million University Health 2 project. The 80,000 square-foot facility will accommodate women’s care and primary care services currently in Truman Medical Center, freeing hospital space to expand its…
Endangered Wheatley-Provident Hospital Saved; Historic Black Institution Being Redeveloped
By Kevin Collison The long-vacant Wheatley-Provident Hospital, an important landmark in the Kansas City African-American community, has been purchased by a development group with plans to renovate it as offices. The deteriorating building at 1826 Forest was the only hospital operated and staffed by black doctors and nurses at a time when healthcare services were…
Children’s Mercy Hospital Launches Construction of Nine-Story Research Building
Construction has begun on a nine-story research building at the Children’s Mercy Hospital downtown campus following record donations totaling $150 million from the Hall Family Foundation and the Sunderland Foundation. When completed in early 2020, employment at the Children’s Research Institute is projected to grow ten-fold, hospital spokeswoman Lisa Augustine said. “It’s hard to put a number…
Children’s Mercy Hospital Plans Nine-Story Research Tower on Hospital Hill
By Kevin Collison Children’s Mercy Hospital is planning a nine-story research tower at its Hospital Hill campus, continuing a boom of healthcare-related construction in that area. The City Planning Commission is scheduled to review the plan for the 400,000 square-foot building at when it meets Wednesday morning. The building is proposed for a 10-acre site…
Rural Health Care Group In Leawood Says Senate Plan Will Hit Rural Hospitals Hard
The health care plan unveiled last month by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate met with fierce opposition from hospital, doctor and patient advocacy groups. Among them was the National Rural Health Association, which is based in Leawood, Kansas, and represents doctors, nurses and hospitals in rural areas nationwide. It says the Senate plan would spell trouble…
New Attention To Struggles Of Kansas Hospitals Fuels Medicaid Expansion Effort
Renewed attention to the financial struggles of several Kansas hospitals is giving supporters of Medicaid expansion a potentially powerful argument as they work to build a veto-proof majority for a new bill. “The conversation became much more real with the renewed talk about hospital closures,” said David Jordan, director of the Alliance for a Healthy…
Getting Innovators To Come To Work — At A Children’s Hospital
Health care providers who work with kids are natural innovators, says Krista Nelson, Children’s Mercy Hospital’s director of innovation development. Nelson, an expert in innovation — not medicine, was hired by the hospital to run its new Center for Pediatric Innovation. “In the children’s hospital or pediatric environment, we really deal with every size of…
Missouri Lawmakers Debate Whether Pregnancy Resource Centers Must Provide Science-Backed Information
You don’t have to drive far in Missouri to see billboards offering help to pregnant women. They’re part of the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program, which has seen a big increase in public funding in recent years. This year’s legislative debate on the program focuses on a new question: What kind of information should these…
Hospital Chaplains Deliver Spiritual Care
Right from birth, this baby was sick, in trouble. “Her mother immediately asked for prayer and was very optimistic,” Kathie Knehans, then a chaplain at Children’s Mercy Hospital told me. So Knehans prayed with the family. And even when no family members were present, Knehans, now retired, visited the child and prayed. When the still-hospitalized…