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Children's Mercy has one of the largest academic hospital medicine programs in the country and was an early leader in the development of pediatric hospital medicine as a discipline. We are a faculty of physicians who take an exclusive interest in promoting effective, compassionate, efficient care for the medical problems of inpatients.

Hospital medicine staff


Our Hospital Medicine team provides 24/7 services at Children's Mercy Hospital in downtown Kansas City and at Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas in Overland Park, Kansas. On both campuses, hospitalists manage illnesses that affect any body system and require general pediatric inpatient care outside the PICU. Our team is comprised of board-certified pediatricians who work in a highly integrated fashion with the community physicians and families of those we care for. We are also actively involved in numerous quality, safety and advocacy initiatives to enhance care for our patients. We also supervise and teach medical students and pediatric, and family medicine residents during inpatient rotations. We are board-certified Pediatricians and clinical faculty affiliated with University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Conditions

Diagnoses treated in the Section of Hospital Medicine includes but is not limited to:

  • Acute Gastroenteritis

  • Anaphylaxis

  • Asthma Exacerbation

  • Apparent Life-Threatening Event

  • Bacterial Pneumonia

  • Bronchiolitis

  • Cellulitis

  • Closed Head Injuries

  • Croup

  • Dehydration

  • Failure to Thrive

  • Febrile Illness

  • Febrile Seizure

  • Gastroesophageal Reflux/pH study

  • Lymphadenitis

  • Migraine Headache

  • Neonatal Jaundice

  • Periorbital Cellulitis

  • Urinary Tract Infection

  • Viral meningitis

  • Vomiting

Research Projects

The Division of Hospital Medicine at Children’s Mercy participates in diverse research projects to ensure the delivery of innovative, cost-effective and safe inpatient health care. Our team of physician-researchers and biostatisticians also participate in multi-centered, national collaborations to advance the quality of health care for pediatric patients in a variety of health care settings. 

Specific research interests:

  • Define the intersection of chronic disease and the social determinants of health, in addition to understanding the effect of public policy on pediatric health utilization and outcomes.

  • Describe the variation of pediatric inpatient health care between hospitals and identify best practices in order to inform decisions about future consensus guidelines. 

  • Perform comparative effectiveness studies to identify optimal treatments for hospitalized children.

  • Understand the cognitive interactions between providers and the clinical socio-technological work system, related to diagnostic decision-making and reduction in medical errors.

  • Improve teaching strategies around diagnostic reasoning skills for medical students and resident physicians.

  • Identify patterns of health care utilization corresponding to increases in risk for child abuse and neglect. 

For more information on research, contact Jessica Bettenhausen, MD.

Contact Us

Children's Mercy Kansas City Hospital Medicine
(816) 302-3493

Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas Hospital Medicine
(913) 696-8122