Baylor looks to place Diabetes Center in South Dallas

Jason Roberson of the Dallas Morning News reports on an exciting development in the area of health for Southern Dallas. Today, Baylor Health Care System is going to put a center in South Dallas to help fight sugar.

You know sugar a.k.a. diabetes. That’s how the disease was always spoken about in my family and community growing up. I thought that it meant that people who had “sugar” had eaten too many sweets. It turned out that it was much more than that.

The diabetes institute as described in Mr. Roberson’s article will help to educate our community about this dangerous and treatable disease. I have family members who are living with diabetes, and education makes all the difference. The fact that the center is coming to South Dallas shows Baylor’s commitment to serving the area that could benefit the most.

Read Mr. Roberson’s complete article here. Below I have listed some of the highlights.

• Executives at Baylor Health Care System Inc. will unveil plans today for a $15 million, three-year project to transform a South Dallas recreation center into a diabetes health and wellness institute. Baylor wants to use the Juanita J. Craft Recreation Center at 4500 Spring Ave. to fight diabetes with an onsite physician and nurse practitioner, nutrition and cooking classes, and a diabetes drug distribution system.

• Baylor officials will brief Dallas City Council members on the plans today. The Dallas-based hospital system will ask the city for an additional $2 million in construction costs for recreational areas; structural repairs to the roof, exterior walls and parking lot; and maintenance of the adjacent 20-acre park.

• Type II diabetes is the most rapidly growing disease in health care. Up to 30 percent of patients admitted to Baylor from North Texas have diabetes, and southern Dallas County residents have a 17 percent higher hospitalization rate for diabetes than other North Texas regions, according to Dr. Paul Convery, Baylor’s senior vice president and chief medical officer.

• In 2006, Baylor’s board of directors created the Southern Sector Health Initiative to close the region’s health gap. The revamped center will be the cornerstone of its efforts. “This is not just a clinic to take care of diabetes,” Dr. Convery said. “We want to change the whole health outlook for the family.”