STEPS Board President Colin O'Leary (with CEO Christine Matuschewski behind him) presenting at the Thompson Regional Hospital District board meeting on Thursday, June 20, 2024/via Zoom
A non-profit in Kamloops which runs a pair of medical clinics in Kamloops, as well as the clinic in Sun Peaks, has reached out the to the Thompson Regional Hospital District board for potential help.
STEPS, or the Supporting Team Excellence with Patients Society, is requesting the creation of a task force or committee to sort through ways to secure more consistent funding.
Board President Colin O’Leary says while their funding has been more stable recently, he notes at one point, they were close to insolvency.
“Our bank account got as low as $8 to cover payroll,” revealed O’Leary as part of a Thursday morning presentation to the board. “I was scrambling around town for an emergency loan.”
STEPS was originally launched in 2017 with a $260,000 investment from Community Futures, and continues to operate through grants and a small amount of money taken from the medical professionals who operate out of their clinics.
“We run the business and the clinics. That’s what we do. We look after the staffing. We look after the legal stuff. We look after the lending. We look after all of this stuff, so our doctors can come in and they can just be doctors,” noted O’Leary. “It is so powerful hearing from them as well, because they are like ‘this is what I signed up to do. I did not sign up to be an entrepreneur.'”
In making the pitch, O’Leary did hint that more stable funding could be on the way for STEPS.
“It is actually money from the Ministry [of Health] that will flow through Interior Health to get to us,” revealed O’Leary as part of a Q&A session after his presentation. “It [their financing] is changing. But the reality of the matter is, we are razor thin.”
The STEPS clinics in Kamloops and Sun Peaks have around 14,000 regular patients.
From June 1st, 2023 to May 31st, 2024, STEPS clinics have provided care for nearly 600,000 patients.
Information from STEPS provided to the Thompson Regional Hospital District Board/via Zoom
