KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne reports on stories in Overland Park, Johnson County and topics about government accountability. She first reported on this story last month and followed up with parents, sharing new information from the health system. Share your story idea with Isabella.
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The University of Kansas Health System will be shutting down its pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) services by the end of June 2026.
The decision was first announced last month, prompting concern from former and current PICU parents.
"From the outside, it does feel like it's just based on money," Overland Park parent Debbie Niemann said. "At the end of the day, we're talking about children."
KU Hospital cared for 150 patients in its PICU last year, citing chronically low numbers compared to the rest of the hospital's care as the reason for its closure.
"More patients need our care than we have beds to offer, which means we have to use every space as best we can," Dr. Steven Stites, KU Health System's chief medical officer, said. "One of the reasons we don't see as many pediatric patients needing intensive care is we have a nationally recognized, outstanding children's hospital just a few miles away."
Axton Meyer-Sotack is one of the 150 patients needing PICU services at KU Hospital.
"They know what he needs," Axton's mom, Sherry, said. "It's been really life-saving, literally, for Axton and our family."
Sherry Meyer-Sotack explained that 11 years ago, Axton aspirated when he was six months old. They were diverted to KU Hospital because she explained that Children's Mercy was too full to take any more patients.
"We were just trying to get our kid to be okay at that point," Meyer-Sotack said. "It really just makes a big difference when he needs to be seen; we can get right in. We get right into a room."
Not enough PICU beds in the Kansas City metro is a concern shared by parents across the state line.
"The World Cup is coming here in just a couple of weeks, we need to be prepared," Niemann said. "The timing of this is terrible, in my opinion, and I don't think it's putting kids first."
KU Hospital leadership explained that the decision did not come lightly, but that PICU beds and space were needed for other services, such as the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
"25% of the time, there were no pediatric intensive care unit patients," Dr. Stites said. "Some children stayed with us multiple times, but the biggest volume of patients cared for in the pediatric ICU is largely overflow from other units."
"A tremendous amount of our PICU patients are already transferred over to [Children's Mercy] because of that complex care," Dr. Sean Kumar, chief medical officer of the health system's Kansas City division, said.
Children's Mercy announced it's building a $1 billion expansion tower that will house and expand the hospital's PICU beds.
But parents want to know what happens if the hospital's PICU gets full before the expansion.
"Where do these kids go?" Niemann asked. "Or what happens when you have a kid that's on the [pediatric] floor, and they start crashing. Then what happens?"
KSHB 41 News reporter Isabella Ledonne asked KU Health System and Children's Mercy leadership that question during a weekly briefing on Wednesday morning.
"We are more than capable of taking care of those patients in the beds we currently have," Steph Meyer, Children's Mercy's chief operating officer for acute care, said. "The need to grow those beds over time, we are aware of, and that's what we're excited about in our tower expansion."
Ledonne shared the hospital's answer with parents.
"It doesn't answer the question because that tower is not ready now," Niemann said. "I'm just struggling to understand how, when their vision statement says that they're here to support health care in the Kansas communities, this aligns with having only one option."
The decision has left families like Axton's scared for what comes next.
"I think even one kid is worth it if it's going to make a difference in that family's life," Meyer-Sotack said. "This was our safe place. This is what we had, that we could always depend on to be there, that we knew that he'd be taken care of. Now, we're kind of at a loss."
No layoffs or terminations are expected in the shutdown of KU Hospital PICU services.
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