Children’s Mercy Hospital is partnering with Olathe Medical Center to provide pediatric urgent care and specialty clinics at an as-yet unbuilt facility on OMC’s 250-acre campus at 151st Street and Interstate 35.
The partnership is the first between the two hospitals. It will allow OMC to take advantage of Children’s Mercy’s wide range of expertise in treating children, especially those with complex medical conditions.
"It ties in with our vision of providing a full continuum of care on the Olathe Medical Center campus," Olathe Medical Center CEO Frank H. Devocelle said in an email. "We will be able to offer an enhanced level of services for children.
"This collaboration will also complement both the expansive pediatric primary care network of Olathe Health System and the new obstetrics wing with Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit currently under construction at Olathe Medical Center. The new NICU and The Birth Place will open in spring 2017."
The partnership agreement comes amid more than $100 million in ongoing expansion projects at Olathe Medical Center, including a new, four-story obstetrics wing.
OMC is part of a larger system that includes Miami County Medical Center and about three dozen clinics. Including its primary and secondary service areas, it serves Johnson, Miami, Franklin and Linn counties.
Children’s Mercy operates two hospitals, one in Kansas City, Missouri, and the other in Overland Park, Kansas. It also operates outpatient and regional centers in both states. The latest U.S. News and World Report hospital survey ranked it nationally in 10 pediatric specialties.
Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.