New health, wellness center to open Tuesday at Memorial Hospital

CARTHAGE, Ill. — The Illinois Department of Public Health has approved for Memorial Hospital to start using its new health and wellness center within the hospital on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Patients will use the side entrance of Memorial Hospital to gain access to the center, which has space for diabetes education, a sleep lab, a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen, a conference room and additional offices. Patients seeing Ashlyn Housewright, Kara Andrew or Kayce Fuhrman will now be seen in the new addition.

The area will provide nutrition and diabetes education services in person and virtually. The health and wellness team will offer innovative patient-centered education founded on the most current evidence-based research. Patients will be provided a multi-disciplinary approach to education. The health and wellness team has a registered nurse, certified diabetes care and education specialists, registered dietitians, exercise physiologists, pharmacists and culinary-trained chefs.

A state-of-the-art kitchen with four cooking stations will be used by the health and wellness team to help people learn how to prepare healthy meals. The kitchen has two large computer screens and a camera for the team to utilize for online cooking opportunities. The camera can be used for people to log on to a video call and learn how to prepare meals at home without having to be on the Memorial Hospital campus. The team plans to use the kitchen to engage community members and provide education on how to prepare simple meals and apply kitchen skills in their homes.