A Sanford Health doctor takes to the skies to bridge the rural health care gap in South Dakota
Sanford Health
Sioux Falls/Rapid City, S.D.
Storks delivering babies may be a flight of fancy, but a real South Dakota maternal-fetal medicine specialist flies hundreds of miles each week to reach rural patients who would otherwise face hours-long drives for specialized care. Newsweek reports that Sanford Health’s Michael McNamara, M.D., travels by small jet every Wednesday from Sioux Falls to Rapid City, where he sees patients with high-risk pregnancies who live on remote farmland, military bases and Native American reservations.
McNamara’s airborne commute is part of Sanford Health’s wider efforts to deliver specialty care across the Upper Midwest. With physician shortages worsening nationwide, especially in subspecialties like maternal-fetal medicine, rural communities often lack local access to advanced medical services. Sanford Health uses its own aircraft to provide 60 different types of specialty outreach to more than 200 locations each year, helping reduce travel burdens for families and address gaps caused by provider burnout and retirements.
For McNamara, the unusual workday is driven by a sense of mission. In the Newsweek account, he emphasized why he continues to fly into remote regions: “I always just want to make a difference. I know that these patients, if someone wasn’t coming up, they may not get the care that they need.” He added, “If we didn’t do it, who would?”