As health care providers throughout BC struggle with stress, burnout, and swelling waitlists, one not-for-profit group operating medical clinics offers a hopeful glimpse of the future of family care in Kamloops.

Supporting Team Excellence with Patients Society (STEPS) formed five years ago in Kamloops to pull together different health care professionals into one larger interdisciplinary team. The resulting model is a community health care centre that offers various resources for family medicine, clinical care, rehabilitation, and social services. If the name STEPS doesn’t ring a bell then its clinics might be familiar: Orchards Walk Medical Clinic, Bee Well Kamloops Medical Clinic, TruCare Family Physicians, and Dr. Jeevyn Chahal’s 645 Victoria Street Medical Clinic.

At the heart of STEPS is a commitment to caring for the community and patients by supporting their team of medical, clinical, and social care providers with a clinic manager, billing specialist, a team of medical office assistants, other administrators, and a volunteer board of directors who have extensive business expertise.

“We think doctors should spend their time practicing medicine, not doing administration work,” says Christine Matuschewski, STEPS’ CEO. “In the STEPS model, doctors decrease the amount of administration that they need to do and increase the number of patients they can see. Their time practicing medicine and helping patients increases.”

STEPS cares for approximately 17,000 patients in the community, and Matuschewski says that number could increase to 20,000 patients by the end of the year as STEPS grows from about 65 people on the team and up to 80 by December.

The community health care centre approach means that patients can access most importantly longitudinal general family practice care with integrated, collaborative, team-based care approaches to supporting the outcome of best patient health. The unique model allows better access for people facing barriers to care. STEPS also provides outreach care for Indigenous people, women’s and sexual health services, LGBTQ2S+ and TransCare, and allied health care professionals including a dietician, social worker, pharmacist, registered nurses, diabetic educator, occupational therapist, and clinical counsellor.

Dr. Jeevyn Chahal joined STEPS a year ago, and she says the team-based care leaves her feeling supported, respected, and valued.

“Joining the STEPS community health care centre has renewed my love for family medicine and is allowing me to spend quality time with my patients, family, and friends,” says Dr. Chahal.

As STEPS continues to establish its clinics, the organization can dedicate time on quality improvement and evaluation, using patient data to understand its patient population.

“For example, we can see a list of all our patients who deal with the chronic lung disease COPD, and look at where they live, see who needs respiratory therapy, and who requires a home visit, and start planning how to provide that care closer to home” says Matuschewski.

“We want communities in general to look at community health centres like STEPS, and see them as a viable option to lead and govern their own health care options in BC.”