A health center established in the city of Benton Harbor by Spectrum Health Lakeland last year will continue in the community and also be expanded. Spectrum Health Lakeland Vice President of Health Equity Lynn Todman told the Benton Harbor City Commission on Monday the Center for Better Health launched in response to COVID-19.
“It was launched in November of 2020 with just over $1 million of Cares Act funding,” Todman said. “We put this grant together in about eight days, and knew that there was a lot of COVID in the Benton Harbor community, that people weren’t getting tested at the rates they needed to, and that people were experiencing a lot of COVID related problems.”
Todman said they hired “basically all” Benton Harbor residents to staff the center with a plan for it to operate for one year. However, Spectrum Health Lakeland’s board has approved funds for another year, and it could continue beyond. Dr. Willie Lawrence, a cardiologist out of Kansas City has been brought in to run the center.
“It became clear to me that we need to, again, focus more on some of the preventive measures, not just opening up block vessels when people are about to die, which is what I’ve done for the last 30 years.”
The Center for Better Health connects patients not only with preventive medicine and vaccines, but with legal and social services that affect their health. Commissioners were told that so far, it’s given out more than 120 COVID vaccinations.
