Great Lakes Bay Health Centers is consolidating its Bay City services into one building in Uptown.
The new building will offer one-stop shopping for primary care, dental and vision, substance abuse treatment, women’s services, and access to community health workers.
![]()
Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Bay Health CentersA mobile dental health program brings dental services to school-aged children in the Great Lakes Bay Region. In the summer, the buses travel throughout lower Michigan providing dental services to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.The Great Lakes Bay Health Centers (GLBHC) announced the project during a fundraising luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel on Thurs., Oct. 3.
GLBHC is a non-profit organization providing health care to people who are underserved, uninsured, or underinsured. Guests at the luncheon were invited to
donate to help GLBHC continue to provide services to uninsured and underinsured people in the community.
Also during the luncheon, several people told personal stories of encounters with health care systems.
One of those was Julie Hobgood, an RN and manager of the
Bayside Health Center.
“Growing up, my family didn’t have to worry about health insurance coverage or whether we would be able to seek medical care when we needed it, not because we were rich or because my parents had great jobs, but because I was fortunate enough to live in a country where equality for health care for everyone was valued,” Hobgood said.
![]()
Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Bay Health CentersServices available at the 3884 Monitor Road center include family medicine; dental; immunizations; family planning; acute care; lab; pharmacy assistance; and behavioral health.“It wasn’t until I was a young adult living in Texas and working as a nurse in a small community hospital just a few miles from the border of Mexico that I began to recognize that there is often a disparity of care between those who have health care insurance and those who don’t.
“This inequality lit a fire in me and throughout my career, I found myself working for underserved communities,” she said.
A video telling the emotional stories of people the GLBHC helped also was shown.
After the video, doula Tracey Orr took the stage to talk about helping patient Bree Johnson as she delivered her son, William.
Doulas, such as Orr, help women during labor. They help doctors and nurses communicate with moms before, during, and after pregnancy.
Orr became emotional and had to stop several times during her presentation.
“Some of the moms we support do not have anyone to help them,” Orr said. “I don’t take it for granted that they are asking me to come into their private space. it is a special moment and I love to share it.”
![]()
Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Bay Health CentersGreat Lakes Bay Health Centers Bay City South provides behavioral health, psychiatry and therapy, recovery services, substance use disorder, and pharmacy services. Five months after William was born, Orr remains close to Johnson and her son.
“I was meant to be in Bree and William’s lives,” she said. “Bree is one in a million.”
The feeling is mutual. Johnson said she met Orr after doctors told her William’s heart rate was too fast and she needed to get to the hospital now. That happened was three weeks before William was due.
Once at the hospital, she labored for three days. Orr stayed with Johnson and her mother throughout the experience.
“I had not met Tracey before that day, but I felt comfortable with her,” Johnson said. “Without her, I would have been overwhelmed and frustrated. I was very worried about his heart rate and how he was doing. She (Orr) explained things and was very calm.“
William spent a few days in the neonatal intensive care unit, but now is a healthy five-month-old boy.
“He is very healthy. My baby, William, is now five months old and doing great. I love being a mom and getting to know my son and his personality.”
Dr. Brenda Coughlin, CEO and President of GLBHC, talked about an experience she had as a student.
![]()
Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Bay Health CentersServices available at the 3175 W. Professional Drive center include obstetrics and gynecology; nurse midwifery; infertility; major and minor surgeries; robotic surgery; incontinence; and more. (Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Bay Health Centers)“I went to Europe for a summer to study. While I was traveling, I woke up one morning in Amsterdam with a terrible sore throat, a fever of 104 degrees, the inability to swallow anything solid. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t speak the language, I didn’t know how to access medical care, I didn’t know if I had insurance there, or any way to pay for a doctor’s visit, and I was so sick that I couldn’t figure out how to help myself,” Coughlin remembered.
That experience helps her understand the plight of many people in our community.
“What do you do in our community when you are sick, don’t have insurance for a doctor’s office visit, or don’t have transportation to get to the pharmacy to pick up medication? Great Lakes Bay Health Centers can help.”
The ability to help is about to expand, she added.
“Great Lakes Bay Health Center is partnering with Shaheen Development to break ground this fall on a new location in Uptown Bay City, which will combine all of our life-changing services into one location closer to where our patients live, in a one-stop shop for life-changing care, and add more capacity to change the lives of thousands of people who cannot access services today,” Coughlin said.
Right now, GLBHC offers services in Bay County at Bayside, 3884 Monitor Road; Women’s Care Bay City, 3175 W. Professional Drive; Bay City South, 690 S. Trumbull St.; and inside Bay City Central High School, 1624 Columbus Ave. and Washington Elementary School, 1821 McKinley Ave. Some services also are available via buses that visit elementary schools.
The new facility brings all of that under one roof. It also allows GLBHC to add vision services to its Bay County offerings.
“It means a patient can walk in one door, and receive medical care, behavioral health counseling, new classes, medications to manage illness, dental care for that abscessed tooth, see a community health worker to find work or pay an electrical bill and get a van ride to the door and back home if they don’t have transportation,” Coughlin said.