Mercy Center for Diabetic Wellness Gets New Home

Presence Mercy Medical Center has announced its Center for Diabetic Wellness will relocate to better serve its patients and accommodate the center’s growth and new programs.

Presence Mercy Medical Center, formerly Provena Mercy Medical Center, is now a part of Presence Health, the newest health system in Illinois.

The Center for Diabetic Wellness, currently located on the hospital’s main Aurora campus at 1325 North Highland, was scheuled to move this week to 1975 Melissa Lane near the intersection of Sullivan and Deerpath roads. 

The Center has outgrown its current location, and the new location offers several ammenities that will further benefit patients and enhance the level of care they receive.

 

Patients will have larger rooms for educational programming and special events, as well as a larger waiting room. The furnishings and building design offer a more comfortable and patient-friendly environment.

“We’re very happy about being able to offer patients more of an outpatient center experience,” said Center for Diabetic Wellness Manager Maria Iniguez. “Much of what we do for patients is educational, and we know that patients learn and respond better when they are in this type of soothing and comfortable enviornment,” she said.

Presence Mercy’s Center for Diabetic Wellness has grown significantly in recent years both in the number of diabetes patients it serves and the number of new prevention and wellness programs being offered.

Recently, the Diabetes Resource Team developed a new diabetes prevention program, “A-List: Achieving Good Health,” funded in part by a grant from the Dunham Fund. 

The free program provides education, goal-setting and health screenings for people who have at least one risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.

Another community wellness program, IROC (I’m Reducing Obesity in Children), was created last year to address the national and local obesity epidemic among children. The program offers hands-on cooking demonstrations and nutrition education for children and their parents.

“We’re committed to educating patients and helping them manage their diabetes. But we also want to help people before the disease strikes,” Iniguez said. “We want to take a pro-active approach to delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes or preventing it altogether,” she said. “We’ll have more space for all of our programming and to meet the needs of future growth.”

Thursday, March 15 marks the 8-year anniversary of the Center for Diabetic Wellness, according to Maria Aurora Diaz, director of community health and diabetes. “We continue our commitment to the quality of care our patients receive, and our new relocation will provide us with the space needed to grow our service,” Diaz said.

Today, the Center for Diabetic Wellness remains the only comprehensive program in the area that offers diabetes education, nutritional counseling, subspecialty clinics and support groups in a bilingual setting.

The Center’s new Aurora location is also home to Presence Mercy’s speech therapy, physical therapy and community health programs.