The Space Between the Dots

I have lived and practiced family medicine in Plainville, Kansas for more than seventeen years.  Plainville is located in Rooks County (pop. 5043) in the northwest corner of Kansas. You’ve heard of “the space between the dots?” That’s where I live. I have a full-scope practice: I see folks in my office, cover the emergency room, round on my own inpatients, deliver babies, see patients in the local nursing homes, and do home visits. My patients range in age from newborn to 105, and I have the privilege of caring for multi-generation families. I also see my patients outside the office most days – in the grocery store, at church or out at dinner, in my kids’ school – and they’ve become an extended family over the years. I came to Plainville because of the Kansas Medical Student Loan program; I stayed because I fell in love with the community and value the opportunity it represents to live and work in ways that are meaningful to me.

Things are different when you live half-way between Kansas City and Denver (it is 4.5 hours in either direction). You can’t pop down the street to a great Ethiopian restaurant or head to the mega-mall for a last minute Christmas gift, for example. And there is no anonymity; news in a small community travels quickly, and everyone is part of the community. The line between patient and friend rarely exists. I used to tell my best friend from med school, who practices in a large metropolitan area and finds the lack of barrier odd, if I was forced to separate people into two piles: friends and patients, I would either have patients that I didn’t really like or no friends! My home address and phone number are in the phonebook; it wouldn’t matter if they were unlisted because everyone knows where I live anyway. And I’m good with that fact.

Practicing medicine in rural Kansas holds some distinct advantages. Our local hospital, Rooks County Health Center was named in 2018 as one of the top 100 critical access hospitals in the nation and is a wonderful partner in the quest to provide high quality care to our community. Practicing in a primary care centric facility means we are aligned in our goal to provide the best value: great care and an amazing patient experience for everything our patients need (and nothing they don’t). We don’t have a cardiologist or surgeon on every corner, but the ones who practice in the next town over are both excellent clinicians and personal friends. And perhaps most importantly, my family medicine colleagues and the team at Post Rock have my back. Through thick and thin, perfect days, crazy flu seasons and local tragedy, we are there for each other. I can’t imagine practicing medicine anywhere else.

Living in this part of Kansas also means good things for my family. As a parent, I feel my children are safe in their community and school. A smaller school size means more opportunity for participation in a diverse array of activities. I know there is a village of people who would (and did) help when my husband and I couldn’t stretch to be in three places at once. We live close to our extended family, and Sunday lunch is always at grandma and grandpa’s house with cousins. The importance of these things cannot be measured.

I was born and grew up in another small town in rural northwest Kansas, about 70 miles west of Plainville as the crow flies. Although the population of that town is only about 250 people, I find ties back to the area so often it has stopped surprising me; I now believe everyone knows someone from Gove County. As a child, I imagined growing up, moving far away and never looking back. As an adult, I find the life and work that completely fulfill me are not very far down the road from those roots.