With 360 acres on its Lee’s Summit campus, Truman Medical Center-Lakewood has plenty of room to grow. Chief Operating Officer Lynette Wheeler updated Lee’s Summit business leaders on TMC-Lakewood’s recent expansion activity at LSEDC’s April advisory luncheon.

The “safety net” hospital offers women’s services including maternity care and NICU, the region’s only Advanced Certified total joint replacement program, a geriatric psychiatric care unit, 188-bed long-term acute care facility, dental clinic and residency program, a behavioral health counseling center, and new GI center that opened in 2016. TMC Lakewood’s emergency department treats more than 27,000 patients each year, and its family medicine residency program is the fourth largest in the U.S.

“We care for anyone regardless of their ability to pay. We receive funds from the city, county, state and federal government, but this does not cover the cost of the care we provide patients without insurance,” Wheeler said.

In 2017, TMC-Lakewood spent $101 million on uncompensated care. Its payer mix is comprised of 37 percent Medicaid patients, 23 percent Medicare patients and 24 percent self-pay. Obtaining grants helps Lakewood offset costs. For example, the hospital has obtained two grants to help fund expansion of its pediatric speech department and plans to seek additional grant funding to grow its outreach and care for children with autism.

TMC-Lakewood places a strong emphasis on women’s care and prides itself on offering services such as mammography to those who otherwise wouldn’t have access. The hospital recently purchased University Health Women’s Care, 3450 NE Powell Road, an acquisition that will help the hospital grow its women’s health services and bring its total number of OB/GYNs to six.

The hospital’s history is storied but not well-known, according to Wheeler. The hospital dates to 1853 when citizens of Kansas City purchased existing land and opened a “Poor Farm” to remove the homeless population from the streets. By 1908, the site was home to a long-term care facility to care for indigent farmers.

“It was self-sufficient. They had crops and bought the land from Cole Younger who was well-known during Civil War. Cole Younger along with his four sons rode with Jesse James and Frank James and you know them as the Younger Brothers,” Wheeler explained.

The hospital as we know it now was built with public bonds in 1928 by the Jackson County Health Department under the direction of then-Circuit Court Judge Harry Truman and named Jackson County Hospital.

TMC-Lakewood’s emergency department treats more than 27,000 patients each year, and its family medicine residency program is the fourth largest in the U.S.
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Fast Facts
TMC-Lakewood

Date Founded: 1853
Acute Care Beds: 110
Long-Term Care Beds: 188
Annual Emergency Room Visits: 27,752
Births Per Year: 1,600
Employees: 1,100
Employees who live in Lee’s Summit: 409

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