Children’s Mercy Hospital is a Kansas City gem

Children’s Mercy Hospital has long been one of Kansas City’s greatest institutional assets, and this health care gem sparkled even more last week with a $2 million gift.

The money from Elizabeth J. and James E. Ferrell for Children’s Mercy’s Elizabeth J. Ferrell Fetal Health Center also creates an endowed chair with Timothy L. Bennett, medical director of Fetal Health Services, as its first appointee. The center was established in 2010, enabling Children’s Mercy to be one of the few hospitals in the country to provide comprehensive care, including delivery of babies with fetal anomalies.

Area residents benefit because the center offers specialized care for high-risk infants, including a fetal surgery program begun in 2014 as the first of its kind in Kansas City. The center has performed more than 450 deliveries. The endowed chair is a prestigious faculty appointment. Such gifts through the hospital foundation’s endowment help retain and attract top physicians and scientists.

Elizabeth Ferrell and her daughter, Kate, have been active volunteers at the hospital. The staff at Children’s Mercy last week celebrated the Ferrell’s latest gift and Elizabeth Ferrell’s 75th birthday.

Area residents also can be proud of Children’s Mercy for once again being recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, with high rankings in all 10 specialties.

They include cancer, cardiology, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology; and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology.

Parents taking kids to Children’s Mercy can be confident that their loved ones will receive the best care imaginable.

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Children’s Mercy Hospital is a Kansas City gem."