MERCY HOSPITAL IS
OPENED TO PUBLIC.
$10,000 BUILDING DONATED BY
CHARITABLE PERSONS.
Distinctive Kansas City Institution
Is Now Prepared to Care for
More Patients -- Its
Great Record.
After some years of hard work on the part of the directors of Mercy hospital, the handsome new hospital building has been finished and yesterday afternoon and evening it was thrown open to the public for inspection. The new building, outside of labor and many donations of work, was erected and furnished at a cost of something over $10,000, the whole sum being donated by charitable persons. Those who attended the reception yesterday were struck with the appearance of the new hospital building and were unanimous in their belief that the money had been well spent.
Mercy hospital is a distinctive institution in Kansas City. The only patients it will take are the sick babies and children of parents who cannot afford to secure competent medical attention. Mercy hospital has a record for the past four years, having lost but two patients who were over two years of age.
ITS WORK WELL KNOWN.
The little babies taken there range from a few hours in age to several months. The greatest death loss has, naturally, been of the newborn babies.
So well was the work of Mercy known to the public that the old building was constantly filled with patients. It had a capacity of eighteen patients and then the nurses and attendants had to live in halls and corners. Each day, in the old building, applicants had to be turned away because of the lack of facilities.
The new hospital has a capacity of 100 patients and the nurses and attendants will occupy the old building which adjoins. The new building is three stories in height containing all of the latest appliances for hospitals and a great amount of equipment which is used for children only.
On the first floor the most noticeable room is the children's playroom. Heretofore, when the weather was bad, the children have had no place for their games. The new playroom has been fitted with toys, blocks and some gymnastic apparatus.
The second floor is given over to wards entirely, one noticeable ward being the room allotted to the incurable cases so that the children need not be sent away from the hospital because they had stayed so long a time and could not be cured.
FLOODED WITH LIGHT.
Bordering the entire second floor is a sixteen-foot sun porch, which is to be filled with a long line of little white iron beds for those children who need the outdoor air.
The third floor is also given over to wards, but there the nurses' dining rooms are located.
The whole building is flooded with outdoor light, and the ventilating system is of the most modern type. The institution is run wholly by the charity of the people of Kansas City, having no endowment whatever.
Yesterday morning the twenty-one little patients were moved from their old, cramped quarters into the new and roomy wards. They were greatly delighted and entertained by the many visitors who went to Mercy hospital to see the good work of the directors and the people of the city. Only those infants who are dangerously ill were kept in the old building.
