Honors and awards

Carl Myers, MD, and Ashley Holly, MD

Several organizations and publications have honored NKC Health and its leaders.

For four consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has named NKC Health a 2026 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care, its top distinction. This honor adds to NKC Health’s 14 High Performing ratings in the 2025-2026 Best Regional Hospitals rankings.

The Kansas City Medical Society (KCMS) recognized Ashley Holly, MD, NKC Health General Surgery, and Carl Myers, MD, NKC Health Primary Care – Platte City, at its annual meeting. KCMS named Dr. Holly a Rising Star and praised her for combining strong technical skills with compassionate, patient-centered care. KCMS presented Dr. Myers with the Exemplary Leadership Award for his leadership and service, including his work to raise scholarship funds for medical students.

Press Ganey named NKC Health a 2025 Human Experience (HX) Guardian of Excellence Award® winner. By listening to patients and using their feedback to improve care, NKC Health now ranks in the top 1% nationally for patient experience.

The health system logged more than 666,000 minutes of translation services for patients across 77 languages in 2025. Spanish led the way, followed by Haitian Creole and Vietnamese. Satisfaction remained high, with 95.9% of patients rating the service positively.

NKC Health moved up two spots this year to No. 8 in Missouri and ranked among the top three hospitals in the Kansas City, MO area on Newsweek’s 2026 Best-in-State Hospitals list. 

The Missouri Hospital Association honored NKC Health with the 2025 Aim for Excellence Award for its outstanding clinical outcomes. The award recognizes NKC Health’s Code Blue Committee’s evidence-based interventions to reduce defibrillation delays and optimize time-to-shock performance.

Douglas Ham, DO, and Andrew Jurgensmeier, MD

Missouri Hospital Association members elected NKC Health President and CEO Stephen Reintjes Sr., MD, to serve as the 2026 chair of its Board of Trustees. As chair, Dr. Reintjes oversees the board, advises the association on daily matters and represents Missouri hospitals before state and federal lawmakers.

Ingram’s magazine honored Douglas Ham, DO, and Andrew Jurgensmeier, MD, among its Top Doctors for 2025. As medical director of the NKC Health Emergency Department, Dr. Ham oversees the highest-volume emergency room in Kansas City. A family physician at NKC Health Primary Care – Gashland, Dr. Jurgensmeier is known for his knowledge and compassion. 

For the third year in a row, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association gave NKC Health their highest recognition for excelling in the quality improvement registry, Get with the Guidelines®. This year, the health system earned seven national awards, including a fourth straight Gold Plus Award for stroke care and a third for heart failure.

Thirty NKC Health units, departments and clinics earned Top-Box high performer status in fiscal year 2024–2025 based on patient experience survey results. The designation recognizes departments that consistently achieve the highest possible scores. Of those 30 areas recognized, 11 ranked above 90% of their peers nationwide.