Memorial Health System, which includes Passavant Area Hospital as one of its seven affiliates, plans to donate a medical office building at 800 W. State St. to the Prairie Council on Aging.

The Jacksonville-based agency, which serves a five-county region, will use the building to combine four separate offices into a single setting as well as improve access to services. The Jacksonville City Council approved rezoning the property on June 23.

“Our mission is to keep older citizens and adults with disabilities in the community as long as possible safely,” said Nancy Thorsen, executive director of the Prairie Council on Aging. “This building will represent a fresh start for our agency. Not only does it provide a much better access point for our participants and the privacy they deserve, but it will also provide our staff with the professional office space and storage they need to do their important work.”

The office building on a nearly 32,000-square-foot plot was formerly the location of several physician practices that are part of Memorial Physician Services, another affiliate of Memorial Health System. Those physician practices, now known as Memorial Physician Services-Jacksonville, relocated to a new, two-story medical office building, which opened in June 2013 at 15 Founders Lane on the Passavant Area Hospital campus.

“This donation to another nonprofit organization in our community is consistent with Memorial’s mission to improve the health of the people and communities we serve,” Doug Rahn, president and CEO of Passavant Area Hospital, said. “We’re honored to assist the Prairie Council on Aging improve access to care and centralize their services as they help a vulnerable population.”

The new location will allow the Prairie Council on Aging to have private interview space when they investigate abuse or help people apply for Medicare Part D assistance, Thorsen said. The agency will also be able to better coordinate the ordering and documentation for its nutrition program, which feeds shut-in senior citizens in Morgan, Cass and Scott counties. The program serves an estimated 60,000 meals annually.

“We are so sincerely thankful for this donation,” Thorsen said. “This is going to change our world by allowing us to better serve the community and enhance the privacy we can provide to the populations we assist. We want to make our participants feel as comfortable as possible, and this new facility is going to enhance our ability to deliver a quality service to them.”