Research Medical Center's history of service to the health care needs of the Kansas City area can be traced to 1886 and the purchase of a 14-room brick house at the corner of 23rd Street and Holmes Road by a group of German-American residents. A year later, German Hospital opened its doors to Kansas Citians needing medical care regardless of creed, nationality or ability to pay.

With a motto of "Dedicated to the Suffering of Humanity," German Hospital quickly became one of the most progressive hospitals in the nation. By 1895, the hospital had doubled in size and in 1905 it began its own nursing school, now known as Research College of Nursing.

The modernization of German Hospital coincided with that of Kansas City. As modern technologies such as skyscrapers and motorized trolleys became a way of life, German Hospital opened a modern facility in 1911 that included state-of-the-art surgical facilities, patient rooms equipped with a toilet and lavatory, closet, telephone, nurses signal, Oriental rugs and fine linen, and sun rooms that offered wicker furniture in glassed-in sun parlors.

German Hospital also embraced the future of medical specialties. In 1911, the hospital established an obstetrics department and led the medical community in clinical advances with the opening of the William Volker Research Laboratory in 1917.

A year later, when wartime anti-German sentiment prompted a name change, Research Hospital was chosen. Research Hospital introduced the area's first health insurance plan, established one of the first community blood banks, and brought the first EKG machine and Cobalt60 unit to Kansas City. It also created an outpatient department in 1919 and opened a diagnostic clinic in 1924.

William Volker, a prominent Kansas City philanthropist, was the biggest contributor to Research Hospital in its early years. Known affectionately as "Mr. Anonymous," Volker's low-key, magnanimous style of giving makes it difficult to date exactly when he became involved with the hospital, but it's not hard to tell the impact he had. Volker financed construction of the Research Laboratory in 1917, the Diagnostic Clinic in 1924 and a new building for the School of Nursing in 1927. He also helped support the daily operations of the hospital and a $2.5 million matching grant from the William Volker Charities Fund, following his death in 1947, helped start a successful fund-raising drive to complete a new facility in 1963.

In 1963, Research Hospital and Medical Center opened on a 60-acre site at the corner of Meyer Boulevard and Prospect Avenue. The change from a traditional hospital to a campus of medical services is reflected in the 1975 name change to Research Medical Center. At its new location, Research Medical Center continued its tradition of medical excellence. Research pioneered electrophysiologic programs that reduced the life-threatening risks of abnormal heart rhythms in 1983, lowered the hazards facing premature and critically ill newborns with the creation of a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in 1987, pioneered transplants between unrelated people at the Transplant Institute in 1988, and turned high-risk brain surgery into an outpatient procedure with the opening of the Midwest Gamma Knife Center in 1995.