Children's Mercy Hospital

Alice Berry Graham

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 schoolteacher, and then 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 was discouraged. But the two persevered and, due to their widowed status, they were permitted to control their own finances, which they poured into their medical work with children.[6]

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 female physician on the staff, the sisters continued treating patients by renting beds in a small hospital.[7]

The bed soon became known as the "Mercy Bed". The sisters formed the Free Bed Fund Association for Crippled, Deformed, and Ruptured Children and in 1901, changing it to The Children's Mercy Hospital in 1919.[8]

At first, the public ridiculed the sisters' work, especially the Berry sisters' belief of women-only staffers. Some people believed women should work in the home and not be physicians. But as societal norms changed, the ridicule lessened and public opinion allowed the hospital to grow

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 new sheets, pillow cases, bath towels and canned food.[9]

In 1915, construction on what would be the first official hospital began at Independence Avenue. The hospital stayed on the avenue 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.[10][11][12] Along with helicopters, CMH sent two C-130s to aid in large scale evacuation of pediatric patients from New Orleans.[13]

Significant events in the hospital's history include:[14]

• 1897: The Free Bed Fund Association of Sick, Crippled, Deformed and Ruptured Children opened its doors with one rented bed on June 24.
• 1901: Central Governing Board of the Free Bed Fund approves the Mercy name.
• 1903: Officially called Mercy Hospital, the new hospital opens in its own building with five beds at 414 Highland Avenue.
• 1917: The hospital moves to Independence and Woodland on November 27.
• 1970: Hospital staff moves 39 children to the hospital's current location, on Hospital Hill 2401 Gillham Road.
• 1995: Five-story Hall Family Outpatient Center opens
• 1996: The seven-story Herman and Helen Sutherland Inpatient Tower open.
• 1997: Children's Mercy South opens in Overland Park, Kansas in October.
• 2000: The Paul and Betty Henson Patient Tower, a complement to the Sutherland Tower, opens.
• 2003: Awarded Magnet designation for nursing excellence, the first hospital in Missouri or Kansas and just the third children's hospital to achieve this honor from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
• 2003: Pediatric Research Center opens on top the two floors of the new Clinic and Research Building on Hospital Hill.
• 2004: Children's Mercy South expansion opens. Renamed Children's Mercy Hospital - Kansas in 2015
• 2009: Bioethics Center opens.
• 2012: Children's Mercy East opens in Independence, Missouri
• 2012: The Elizabeth Ann Hall Patient Tower opens on Hospital Hill.
• 2012: Children's Mercy opens the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine.
• 2013: Children's Mercy Blue Valley opens in Overland Park, Kansas, housing urgent care and sports medicine services, including a gym for sports therapy and rehabilitation.
• 2013: Children's Mercy Wichita, a regional referral center opens in Wichita, Kansas.
• 2015: Children's Mercy performs its first heart transplant.
• 2020: Children's Mercy Furlough's 575 Employees and permanently lays off 60 for the first time in the history of the hospital.
• 2021: Children's Mercy opens the Children's Mercy Research Institute in a new, 9-story, 375,000 square-foot building.[15]
• 2022: Children's Mercy recognizes 125th anniversary.