Our History
Advancing Academic Medicine
In 1998, The University of Kansas Hospital became an independent authority with the ability to thrive or fail on its own and without any state appropriations. Since those humble beginnings, we did indeed thrive by always putting patients first. And we’ve stayed true to our guiding formula:
The best outcomes provided in the right way by the very best people lead to growth and financial sustainability.
Our reputation as the region’s premier academic health system was hard-earned through a collective vision and commitment to unmatched patient care. While we are proud of our successes, we remain determined to continue our journey to lead the nation in caring, healing, teaching and discovering.
Hospital origins
With his donation of land in 1905, Simeon Bell, MD, set the stage for academic medicine in Kansas City and the region. His gift led to the establishment of a hospital founded in 1906 as part of the University of Kansas School of Medicine. The first hospital was quickly outgrown, so a new Bell Hospital opened in the same location in 1911 and almost doubled the capacity of its predecessor. By 1924, the hospital had outgrown its space again, so a new hospital was built on a site near the health system’s current main campus, about a mile south of Goat Hill, near West 39th Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City.
The hospital marked an important milestone in 1998 when it became an independent hospital authority, receiving no state funding and no longer part of the School of Medicine. The hospital's official name became The University of Kansas Hospital.
Nearly 20 years later, another milestone occurred. The University of Kansas Hospital joined with the University of Kansas Physicians in 2017 to form The University of Kansas Health System.
This shall be a place where the people of Kansas and areas surrounding may enjoy the best medical care available anywhere. – Simeon Bishop Bell, MD
Hospital milestones
Level I Trauma Center is verified
We provide the region's only nationally verified Level I trauma center, ensuring the highest quality care for trauma victims.
World-class cardiac care program is established
Teams of renowned cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, known at the time as Mid-America Cardiology and MidAmerica Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, join the hospital to establish a world-class comprehensive cardiac care program for patients throughout the region. The Center for Advanced Heart Care later opens in 2006.
Hospital earns Magnet® designation
This recognition, provided by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet Recognition Program, indicates high-quality patient care and nursing excellence. The hospital was the first Kansas-based facility to achieve this accreditation. The hospital would earn redesignation in 2011, 2016 and 2021.
U.S. News & World Report names us one of the nation's best hospitals
The magazine lists us among the nation's top 50 hospitals for adult care in multiple medical and surgical specialties. We are also named the No. 1 hospital in Kansas City, the region and the state of Kansas. We have made the Best Hospitals list every year since 2007.
Westwood, Kansas, outpatient cancer care facility opens
A $20 million gift from Annette Bloch enhances patient care programs, and the facility is named the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion.
The University of Kansas Cancer Center acquires Kansas City Cancer Center
This adds multiple cancer center locations to communities throughout the region and establishes an unprecedented approach to cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship, while serving as a national model for cancer care delivery.
Hospital becomes the official healthcare provider of the Kansas City Royals
In 2012, the hospital becomes the official healthcare provider of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The University of Kansas Cancer Center earns National Cancer Institute designation
Only 71 cancer centers in the nation are NCI-designated. The cancer center would renew its designation in 2017.
Hospital earns Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center designation
The hospital is the first in Kansas City to earn this designation for high-quality stroke care.
Indian Creek Campus opens
Hospital and clinic locations in Johnson County, Kansas, help meet increased demand for conveniently located care from surgeons and other specialists.
Turning Point joins The University of Kansas Hospital
This community resource focuses on the emotional, social and psychological needs of people dealing with serious or chronic illnesses.
Center for Transplantation opens
The center provides comprehensive care for liver, kidney, pancreas and heart transplant patients in one location.
The Kansas Heart and Stroke Collaborative is established
The University of Kansas Hospital establishes the program after receiving a $12.5 million grant. Originally aimed at improving prevention and treatment of heart disease and stroke in Kansas, the Care Collaborative, as it's now known, has expanded its focus to include improvements in sepsis, trauma and palliative care.
Expanded behavioral healthcare services
The hospital expands its behavioral healthcare services through new hospital locations at Marillac, which serves children and adolescents, and KVC Health Systems, which serves adults.
Blood and marrow transplant program performs first bone marrow transplant in an adult Kansas woman to cure sickle cell disease
The region's largest blood and marrow transplant program, established in 1977, offers lifesaving procedures for leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers.
First in the nation to achieve Comprehensive Cardiac Center (CCC) certification
CCC certification honors heart programs with a comprehensive approach to care and a commitment to excellence, along with a dedication to continuous improvement.
The University of Kansas Hospital and The University of Kansas Physicians combine to form The University of Kansas Health System
By pooling the collective knowledge and resources of our physicians and staff, we are able to better meet the needs of the communities we serve.
Cambridge Tower A opens
Cambridge Tower A is an expansion on the main campus of The University of Kansas Health System, featuring 92 private rooms and 11 state-of-the-art surgical suites.
Achieved Vizient's 2017 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award
The award recognizes high performance in the areas of safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and patient-centeredness.
The University of Kansas Health System acquires St. Francis Health
The now-St. Francis Campus, acquired in a partnership with Ardent Health Services, helps enhance healthcare delivery in the Topeka area.
The University of Kansas Health System becomes a founding member of Centrus Health
Along with North Kansas City Hospital and Shawnee Mission Health, this clinically integrated network focuses on transforming healthcare by improving outcomes at a lower cost through the physician-led network of choice. Today, the effort includes more than 1,650 physicians.
The University of Kansas Health System partners with Vibrant Health to support Federally Qualified Health Centers in Wyandotte County
These centers provide essential primary care to underserved communities.
Great Bend Regional Hospital becomes The University of Kansas Health System Great Bend Campus
In August, Great Bend Regional Hospital, a 33-bed facility, and its affiliated clinics join The University of Kansas Health System to become The University of Kansas Health System Great Bend Campus.
The hospital opened in 2009 and was the last inpatient hospital in Great Bend, located in Barton County, Kansas, which is 250 miles southwest of Kansas City. Its affiliated clinics include Central Kansas Family Practice and Heartland Regional, and St. Rose Medical Pavilion, which houses family medicine, Convenient Care Walk-In Clinic and other specialty services.
The University of Kansas Health System announces Strawberry Hill Campus
The facility in Kansas City, Kansas, opens in 2019. It is the home of the health system's expanded mental and behavioral health program.
The University of Kansas Health System announces region’s first proton therapy
Proton therapy is a highly specialized, state-of-the-art form of radiation treatment and will be offered through The University of Kansas Cancer Center. The proton therapy center opened on the health system’s main campus in Kansas City in 2022.
The University of Kansas Health System responds to COVID-19 pandemic
The University of Kansas Health System quickly adapts our services and treatments to meet rapidly changing protocols during the pandemic. Hundreds of health system employees take on temporary but mission-critical roles to staff swab clinics, man screening stations, and answer hotline calls. Our lab team develops an in-house test that can detect COVID-19.
The health system makes the transition to telehealth to make sure patients get the care they need. The move to telehealth had been planned for a 2-year rollout but happens in just 2 weeks. The implementation team connects providers with patients by Zoom, all while patients are able to remain safe at home.
As questions about the virus and preventing illness increase, Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer, and Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infection prevention and control, offer daily briefings for the news media. These briefings become popular Facebook Live forums, drawing viewers from around the world and becomes the “Morning Medical Update.”
As shortages of personal protective equipment continue, the health system partners with Kansas City business leaders to source and secure needed healthcare supplies in support of the region’s COVID-19 response.
The University of Kansas Health System reaches 5,000 organ transplants
The health system’s first organ transplant, performed in 1969, was a kidney transplant and the system’s 5,000th organ transplant was also a kidney transplant. Our transplant teams have performed more than 3,000 kidney transplants, more than 1,700 liver transplants and more than 130 heart transplants.
Fourth consecutive Magnet® designation achieved in midst of pandemic
After receiving the hospital’s 1st Magnet designation in 2006, the health system’s Kansas City division achieves its 4th consecutive designation in September 2021. Only about 9% of hospitals nationwide attain Magnet designation and less than 2% of U.S. hospitals have received the designation 4 or more times.
Patient care program for blood cancers and immunotherapy expands
The December 2021 opening of levels 8, 9 and 10 in Cambridge Tower A on the main campus in Kansas City adds 100 rooms for patients. Eighty-four of these beds are designated specifically for cancer care, with levels 9 and 10 dedicated for patients who have leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers, and those who are receiving immunotherapy treatments.
The Proton Therapy Center opens and treats its first cancer patients
The University of Kansas Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center is one of only 42 such centers in the US, offering highly specialized treatment for many types of cancer, including pediatric cancer. The Proton Center treated its first patients in May of this year.
Cancer center offers all available FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapies
The University of Kansas Cancer Center is among the world’s first providers of FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy and one of only a few centers to offer all of the FDA-approved therapies. This precision cancer therapy offers new potential to cure cancer and save lives.
Olathe Health joins The University of Kansas Health System
In January, the health system announces that Olathe Health will become part of The University of Kansas Health System. The 2 organizations work to integrate into 1 system, building on the strong foundation Olathe Health established through a 70-year legacy of care and commitment to the community. Olathe Health is comprised of 2 nationally accredited hospitals, Olathe Medical Center (now Olathe Hospital) and Miami County Medical Center (now Paola Hospital), and more than 60 primary care and specialty care locations serving multiple counties. Together, the organizations commit to continue to provide the highest quality care close to home, while expanding patients’ access to more comprehensive and integrated care.
Kansas Sports Medicine launches
The University of Kansas Health System launches Kansas Sports Medicine, a collaboration that expanded its partnership with LMH Health. Based in Lawrence, Kansas Sports Medicine includes locations at LMH Health West Campus and Watkins Health Services (the latter location serving KU faculty, staff and students).
Since 2019, the health system and LMH Health have partnered as Kansas Team Health, which provides the highest quality care for Kansas Athletics at the University of Kansas. This care combines the expertise of sports medicine physicians from LMH Health OrthoKansas and the health system, plus the resources of the region’s premier academic health system.
100 million gift supports transformative new cancer research and care facility
The Sunderland Foundation announces a $100 million lead gift to The University of Kansas Cancer Center to build an advanced destination cancer center on the 39th and Rainbow campus. The transformative gift would help fund a world-class research and clinical building that puts patients at the center of science and care, creating a global destination for the best cancer treatment.
The gift was the Sunderland Foundation’s largest ever and the largest gift ever received by the University of Kansas and The University of Kansas Health System. The gift was announced by Charlie Sunderland, trustee of the Sunderland Foundation and former chair of The University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board’s Quality Committee, at a special event hosted by the health system and KU Medical Center. Attendees included U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, acting director of the National Institutes of Health.
Health system celebrates 25 years
The yearlong observance of the 25th anniversary of the health system begins with a panel discussion on the history and purpose of The University of Kansas Hospital’s transition from a state entity to its own authority on October 1, 1998.
Liberty Hospital and The University of Kansas Health System announce intent to partner
On October 19, the Liberty Hospital board of trustees votes to pursue a partnership with The University of Kansas Health System. The board’s decision marks a major milestone in Liberty Hospital’s search for a strategic growth partner, an extensive process that began in May 2023.
Health system chosen as official healthcare provider of the Kansas City Current
The Kansas City Current selects the health system as its official healthcare provider, beginning with the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season.
Health system takes part in All of Us research program
The University of Kansas Medical Center and its partners, including The University of Kansas Health System, will take part in the National Institute of Health’s All of Us research program to advance precision medical research. The medical center and health system will receive $6.3 million in initial funding, with the potential to renew the award every year for 4 years. The goal of the program is to enable clinicians to tailor patient care to each person they treat, taking into account their biology, behavior and environment.
The program has created a national research resource that will include comprehensive de-identified health information from more than 1 million people in the US. The Heartland Consortium includes academic medical centers at the University of Kansas, the University of Iowa, the University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska.
Vizient recognizes Great Bend Campus for high-quality care
The University of Kansas Health System Great Bend Campus is named a top performer in the 2024 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Study by Vizient, Inc. Great Bend Campus was recognized as No. 8 of 28 top performers in the community hospital cohort, which includes 364 community hospitals, for demonstrating excellence in delivering high-quality care.
The Vizient Quality and Accountability Study measures performance on the quality of patient care in 6 domains: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity of care.
Health system joins K-State 105 partnership
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, The University of Kansas Health System will join the K-State 105 initiative, uniting Kansas State University, the health system and Phillips County Health Systems to support rural healthcare in Phillips County in northwest Kansas.
Phillips County Health Systems will serve as a pilot program for innovative healthcare solutions, including engaging community members in identifying and addressing community-specific healthcare priorities.
The partnership builds on the work of the Care Collaborative, a health system program that originally started to drive better outcomes in stroke, heart attack and sepsis care in rural Kansas. It now reaches 73 counties statewide, providing access to a variety of tools, expertise and resources for rural healthcare providers.
Senior leaders at health system and medical center align to strengthen strategy and research
Senior leaders at The University of Kansas Health System and the University of Kansas Medical Center will work to strengthen existing alignment between the 2 organizations.
While the organizations have worked together for many years, the new structure will ensure open lines of communication, more advanced joint planning across campuses and constructive opportunities for informed discussions.
One significant area of alignment will be development of a robust and aligned clinical research infrastructure. The emphasis on research will boost the medical center’s ability to recruit and retain top researchers, become more competitive for research funding and increase clinical trial opportunities for patients.
Liberty Hospital joins the health system
Liberty Hospital has joined The University of Kansas Health System. At this time, patients of Liberty Hospital and its clinics will continue to see providers in the same places, and hospital employees will continue their roles in the same locations.
As part of The University of Kansas Health System, Liberty Hospital will expand access to high-quality healthcare for current and future patients in the Northland, including a more seamless experience receiving primary, specialty and subspecialty care.
Now in its 50th year of serving the health and well-being of the community, Liberty Hospital has more than 2,000 employees and 330 physicians who deliver compassionate, high-quality care using leading-edge technology. Liberty Hospital’s expansion in recent years includes 15 primary and specialty care clinics.
Liberty Hospital and The University of Kansas Health System announced in November 2023 the organizations had signed a Letter of Intent for Liberty Hospital to join the health system. Since then, leaders from both organizations have conducted due diligence to reach definitive agreements.
Cancer center breaks ground for new complex that promises to transform care and research
The University of Kansas Cancer Center broke ground on the future site of a new complex that will bring research and patient care into one facility for the first time in the cancer center’s history.
The new complex, which will be located on the 39th and Rainbow campus in Kansas City, will enable the whole patient experience ̶ from nutrition and social workers to pathology and imaging, and everything in-between ̶ to happen in one place. It also will give patients access to groundbreaking clinical trials and therapies developed on-site. Physicians and researchers will be able to collaborate in real time on personalized treatment options and make them available to patients more quickly.
The new complex will support cellular therapy, which uses the body’s own cells to fight each person’s individual cancer with fewer side effects than traditional treatments. It will also house a cellular therapeutics Good Manufacturing Practice laboratory that will expedite CAR T-cell therapy, a novel treatment that uses genetically re-engineered immune cells known as T-cells to find and destroy cancer. The cancer center is the only cancer center in the region offering all 7 FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapies.
The complex is funded by multiple sources, including a $100 million lead gift from the Sunderland Foundation. U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran secured federal funding and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly supported the appropriation of state funds. Other funding came from private foundations and donors.
The University of Kansas Cancer Center expands to 3 Northland locations
The University of Kansas Cancer Center is expanding the care it provides in the Northland by opening new locations at Briarcliff and Liberty Hospital. Ranked in the top 1% nationwide, the cancer center offers unrivaled expertise and experience in diagnosing and treating all forms of cancer, from common and complex to rare. This growth underscores the cancer center’s commitment to providing leading cancer care, access to clinical trials and the most advanced treatment options close to home.
The Briarcliff location will open in June 2025 and initially will provide medical oncology, as well as hematology exam and limited infusion services. This new location will be expanded in the fall to offer all oncology infusion services with an on-site pharmacy and laboratory services.
At the same time, a cancer center location will open at Liberty Hospital in summer 2025. Like the Briarcliff location, it will be a phased opening, initially offering medical oncology exam and infusion and adding radiation oncology in the fall.
With the addition of the Briarcliff and Liberty Hospital sites, the cancer center has 16 locations throughout Kansas and Missouri.
A legacy of excellence
Our reputation as the region’s premier academic health system was hard-earned, making each achievement that much more meaningful. Today, we are consistently ranked among the nation's top hospitals and academic medical centers in the country.
Our accomplishments