Articles $35 million Advocate center to focus on medically based fitness
Read original release on PANTAGRAPH
BLOOMINGTON — In a $35 million facility that would bring a medically based fitness center, orthopedics and sports performance under one roof, Colleen Kannaday sees the future.
“Health care is moving toward a focus on wellness and prevention and not just being reactive in treating people when they’re sick,” said Kannaday, president of Advocate BroMenn Medical Center. “We’re working on keeping people healthy in our community and that’s what this project is about.”
The project that Kannaday discussed with The Pantagraph on Thursday was a 105,000-square-foot Center for Integrated Wellness announced by Advocate BroMenn, McLean County Orthopedics, Method Sports Performance and Sequoia Wellness.
Developed by Signet Development of Akron, Ohio, the facility will be located across from the Central Illinois Regional Airport and near Advocate BroMenn Outpatient Center at Trinity Lane and Cornelius Drive, Bloomington. A groundbreaking ceremony will be 12:30 p.m. May 18.
The Advocate BroMenn Health & Wellness Center will be managed by Sequoia Wellness, which is part of Signet Development, and will include cardiovascular equipment, group exercise classes, an aquatics area, free weights and locker rooms.
The center will include health and wellness programs to help participants manage chronic diseases more effectively and to help individuals recuperate from injuries or illnesses.
“This center will not compete with the local fitness centers,” Kannaday said. “This will be a medically integrated fitness center” which will involve Advocate BroMenn nurses and doctors, she said.
Advocate BroMenn will relocate its cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation center from Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal to the new center. Employees will be added but Kannaday doesn’t know how many.
“There are many individuals not comfortable going to a fitness center … for wellness and preventive health,” Kannaday said. “This center will attract those individuals.”
For example, if a patient is told to lose 30 pounds before surgery, staff at Advocate BroMenn Health & Wellness Center can work with them, Kannaday said.
The center’s location beside Advocate BroMenn Outpatient Center will benefit some patients and will help Advocate BroMenn to create a health care campus, Kannaday said.
McLean County Orthopedics (MCO) will relocate its orthopedics practice from 2502 E. Empire St. to the new center, allowing McLean County’s largest orthopedics’ practice to consolidate all operations at one location.
“This new, world-class facility allows us to offer our patients comprehensive and efficient orthopedic care — including physical and occupational therapy and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) — all under one roof,” said Dr. Jerome Oakey, MCO vice president.
The third component of the new center will be Method Sports Performance, a physician-owned sports performance center operated by MCO physicians. Method Sports Performance — owned by Drs. Joe Norris, Joe Newcomer, Joseph Novotny and Mark Hanson — will work with middle-school athletes to professionals to help them to improve their performance using science-based improvement assessments and training methods.
Center for Integrated Wellness is being financed by Signet Development, a real estate development and construction management company.
“Advocate is not financing the project,” Kannaday said. “We entered into a long-term lease.
“We are very excited about this innovative project,” she said. The center is scheduled to be completed in fall 2016.