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Springfield
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Mercy Springfield Communities are excited to announce new details regarding their transformative partnership that will bring expanded pediatric services and specialized care to families across southwest Missouri. This collaboration is being recognized by a community event on the Mercy Hospital Springfield campus welcoming pediatric patients and their families, along with caregivers and community members.
As part of the celebration, Children’s Mercy–a nationally recognized independent pediatric health system–is announcing it will manage Mercy Springfield’s hospital-based and specialized pediatric care starting this November. The news comes as Children’s Mercy and Mercy have now signed a joint operating agreement. As Children’s Mercy brings its pediatric expertise to Springfield, it will create a seamless pediatric system of care that strengthens coordination between providers, supports community clinicians and improves access so kids can get the specialized care they need, when they need it, close to home.
“At Children’s Mercy, we are built for kids—our entire child-focused approach is tailored to specifically meet the unique medical, emotional and developmental needs of children, ensuring young patients receive the most compassionate and effective pediatric care possible,” said Amy Fallon, MPH, PhD, President of Regional Operations, Children’s Mercy. “This partnership with Mercy reflects our shared dedication to putting children first and we’re excited to bring our pediatric expertise to Springfield and elevate the care for children and their families.”
Children’s Mercy specialists are already providing care in Springfield with expanded ambulatory services in cardiology and EEG support for neurology. Under the agreement, Children’s Mercy will provide management for a wide range of hospital-based pediatric services, including:
- Pediatric Inpatient Care
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
- Pediatric Surgery
- Pediatric Emergency Department (Peds ED)
- Pediatric Operating Procedures (POPs)
- Child Life Services
- Pediatric Social Work
- Pediatric Respiratory Therapy
- Pediatric Physical and Occupational Therapy
The collaboration between Mercy and Children’s Mercy will help transform the lives of families and reduce the need to travel long distances for care. It will also provide quicker access to specialists and comfort to patient families who will now know that world-class pediatric care is right in their own community.
Consider Little Franklin (Frankie) who burst onto the scene at just 25 weeks, 3 days gestation. Weighing just 1.5-pounds at birth, Frankie represents a true fighter. In spite of many setbacks, Frankie has overcome each obstacle with the help of his fiercely dedicated family and his medical care teams in Kansas City and Springfield. After more than 200 days in the NICU, where he charmed the nurses into letting him stay up late for extra snuggles, Frankie is now thriving at home with his family in Springfield. The family visits multiple Children's Mercy clinics for Frankie’s follow-up care, and they’re grateful to be able to access several of these teams through our satellite clinics in Springfield and via telemedicine when appropriate. “We’re excited for the growing options for us to get Frankie’s care closer to home,” says mom, Stevie Badger.
This collaboration brings together Mercy’s deep community roots and Children’s Mercy’s nationally ranked pediatric expertise.
Mercy currently cares for the majority of pediatric patients in southwest Missouri and Children’s Mercy is consistently ranked among America’s Best Children’s Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and is home to the Children’s Mercy Research Institute, a national leader in pediatric translational research.
“I feel like this is a dream come true,” said Dr. John Burson, Regional Service Line Chair for Women and Children, and a pediatrician at Mercy Springfield Communities. “We’ve been dreaming of ways to enhance pediatric care in this region for 10 years, and even though we already have a strong pediatric hospital in Springfield, we know that kids often must leave town when they need complex care that requires a specialist. By teaming up with Children’s Mercy and bringing their specialists to our campus, we’ll be able to care for more complex needs here at home. As a pediatrician myself, this feels like a huge win for kids in this community.”
To celebrate this milestone, Children’s Mercy and Mercy Springfield are hosting a special event to recognize the teams who helped bring this vision to life, along with the patients this partnership will impact and benefit the most.
