Children's Mercy Northland

Twice now, my son has been dismissed when he needs literal urgent care. The 1st time (back when the intercom system was BROKEN on one side of the gigantic waiting room), I never heard his name called to come up to a desk. I did get a call from an 816 number from a place in MO I never heard of. Eventually, I saw people going up who'd arrived after us and I went to the front desk lady. She was SO RUDE and REFUSED to allow my son to be seen. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she said a supervisor signed off. Enraged, I left and took him to the CM Urgent Care in Independence (he was suddenly refusing to walk, screaming if you touched his leg, he was barely 1 years old). I did end up speaking to a supervisor and he said that she lied, and never had to authorization to turn my child away from care. The SECOND time was quite recently, at the beginning of June 2026. I took him in because of sudden LETHARGY that persisted for nearly 48 hours, plus vomiting. My husband took him and the nurse dismissed him as having a growth spurt or stomach bug. I took him to his primary after having to wait yet another day, I requested labs fearing something else was wrong. I was sent back to THIS LOCATION for labs. The following day, results came back that his ferritin was below 9 and subsequently diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia. Why didn't this office order labs when he presenting was sudden, persistent lethargy? A quick google search says lethargy in children needs immediate attention. Quality of care here is highly dependent on the provider you get. I would not recommend this location.

The best Children’s Urgent Care in the Northland! Both of my kids have been coming here for several years and the staff always takes care of them! My daughter had really bad road burn and our nurses were so gentle with her and made sure that she was clean, and felt better before we left. My daughter asked to go there, because she said they are very nice and caring for her, A child’s opinion speaks the loudest as to how great this location is.

I had a very unpleasant experience with a lab staff member during what should have been a simple specimen drop-off. I arrived with a sample ordered by my child’s Children’s Mercy provider, only to be told it could not be accepted because I did not have a paper requisition. This requirement was never communicated to me by the provider’s office, yet I was made to feel as though the mistake was mine. The staff member then explained that their system had recently changed and that if the provider is part of a clinic or affiliate of Children’s Mercy, the order would not appear in their system. That explanation makes very little sense considering the test was ordered by a Children’s Mercy provider in the first place. Instead of simply explaining the situation professionally, the staff member proceeded to question whether the specimen had been collected and stored correctly. They asked if it had been refrigerated (it had) and claimed it was not dated or timed (it was). I explained that I followed the instructions given for proper collection. For context, I have a degree as a Laboratory Technician, so I am very familiar with proper specimen handling. When I mentioned this, I was met with a snarky “love that for you,” which was incredibly dismissive and unprofessional. Parents coming in with samples for their children are simply trying to follow the directions given by their providers. Being spoken to in a condescending and sarcastic manner is unacceptable in a healthcare setting. A situation that could have been handled with professionalism and basic courtesy instead became unnecessarily frustrating. I sincerely hope leadership addresses both the communication gap in this process and the level of professionalism expected from staff interacting with patients and families. A little kindness and respect go a long way.

On the morning of 2/1 I called the priority care pediatrics nurse line because my daughter was in extreme pain from constipation and hadn’t had a bowel movement for 4 days. The nurse gave me a call back and said I needed to take her the children’s mercy urgent care or ER as soon as possible because they were very concerned for her. I don’t have an issue checking in, going through triage, or answering questions for the first nurses I let them know she hasn’t pooped and when she tries she’s in extreme pain and I had a video of the screaming fit and clenching and trembling of her body when she tries. They seemed concerned they put down all the info and let me know the doctor will be in shortly, perfect. They go ahead and order an X-ray to see just how constipated she is so I get her undressed we get the Xray done and here’s when it starts to go downhill. The doctor came in and said and I quote “we see some moderate constipation but ITS NOT THAT BAD” and this man let out a chuckle as if this was funny, I was never shown the X-ray, then he goes on to explain that she needs more fiber in her diet more purées and proceeds to explain to me what a purée is as if I’m an idiot but I’m just so frustrated that I was being told to do what I’ve been doing for the past four days that hadn’t been working and this was my last ditch effort to get my daughter some real help. Then just when I think it can’t get any worse, here comes the discharge nurse, she proceeds to go over my papers and says that she needs no more than 6 oz of juice (prune or apple) I followed up with only 6? To which she responds “any more than that and you’ll have a diarrhea explosion” also with a chuckle. The reason I ask is I was under the impression that they can have as many oz of liquid other than formula as months they are in age so for the past 4 days my daughter had had about 10 oz of prune or apple juice and there had not been “a diarrhea explosion.” I expressed that I was frustrated and she’s like well maybe there are other things you can try such as suppositories, well it says on the otc box that it’s not recommended for children under 1. I left feeling defeated and helpless, I had tried everything at home I could I came for help because watching my daughter tremble in pain because of poop is awful and for the doctor to use the term “ it’s not that bad” was beyond upsetting. 100% do not recommend children’s mercy northland.

From previous visits, this visit takes the cake. We were waiting for a room to be available and when it was our time moments later an extremely ill child needed assistance ASAP and since we were the last to be given a room (we were doing intake questions) nurses came rushing in with the child, as they should. What I saw that eased my nerves, because my child was sitting on the bed; the swiftness of Ms. Margaret getting my child off the bed and making sure he was still comfortable. Then the quick bedsheet change just let me see that not all is lost in this field seeing all of those nurses work in unison was top tier. I pray that child is ok but just seeing those nurses step into action the way they did showed me that there are still people compassionate about their job/career/community.