Jill Schramm/MDN Dr. Mark Longmuir sits in the emergency room at Mountrail County Medical Center Aug. 17. Longmuir, a family physician in Stanley, recently was named North Dakota’s Outstanding Rural Health Provider of the year.

STANLEY – Dr. Mark Longmuir felt right at home when he accepted the position as chief of staff and medical director at Mountrail County Medical Center after finishing his medical residency in 2012.

It was indeed a homecoming for Longmuir, a Stanley native whose goal from the start was to eventually return to practice medicine in his hometown. Seeing that goal realized has been a unique experience, he said.

“It’s unique in the sense I know a lot of the history of these patients. They know me. So I had a rapport from day one,” he said.

He’s currently the only doctor practicing in Stanley, which makes him director of the clinic, the three-station emergency room and the 11-bed hospital that are part of the Mountrail County Medical Center. He also is head of the attached 48-bed nursing home, the Mountrail Bethel Home.

“It’s a lot of hours and time but it’s worth it,” he said. “You feel that sense of achievement because people thank you for it and tell you that they appreciate it.”

His efforts were recognized this summer when he was named Outstanding Rural Health Provider at the Dakota Conference on Rural and Public Health held in June in Minot. The award is presented to a healthcare clinician who has made an important contribution to a North Dakota rural community and area.

In nominating Longmuir for the award, Rockford Zastoupil, the administrator of the Mountrail Country Medical Center, called Longmuir’s work ethic unmatched.

“I believe that Dr. Longmuir is probably one of the most competent and personable physicians that I’ve met in rural America,” Zastoupil wrote. “He has the youth that we need in this part of the country to take care of those that do not live in urban areas, and he has the wonderful skills that are needed for all of the issues that arise in a small-town rural hospital.”

At the clinic this month, Zastoupil reiterated the facility’s good fortune to have someone of Longmuir’s caliber who also genuinely cares about his patients.

“It’s a joy having him here,” he said. He finds Longmuir’s dedication to Stanley to be especially noteworthy because most younger doctors want to locate in large cities where work hours can be limited to confined shifts.

Longmuir has spent time in schools promoting interest in serving rural residents and advocating with medical students the need for them to serve rural communities.

He said working in a larger city isn’t without appeal, but at the time he completed his family practice residency in Minot, he and his wife, Nicole, had already started their family and felt the best place to raise their children was in their hometown. They now live on Nicole’s family farm with their five children.

Longmuir was born in 1981 in the former Stanley hospital building that was turned into apartments in 2011. The new medical center was built in 2002. Longmuir worked as a certified nursing assistant at the nursing home in high school and college. He graduated from the University of North Dakota and from its medical school in 2009.

Longmuir returned home to practice when oil activity was peaking in the region. It was noticeable in the number of emergency room and clinic patients, but Longmuir said it gave him valuable experience in trauma and other types of care he wouldn’t normally see.

His love for the variety in medicine is what drew him to family practice, and he knew in coming to Stanley that he wouldn’t be pigeon-holed into a single area. The medical center also has three mid-level providers on staff, along with occupational and physical therapy departments.

The medical center brings in visiting specialists and is looking to restore some services, such as mammography and colonscopies. Providing full services, including surgeries or obstetrics, is unlikely to happen, though, Longmuir said.

“It isn’t feasible in today’s health care environment,” he said. “We can’t afford to do that for the extremely low volume we have. You just have to change with the times.”

Still, Longmuir is committed to bringing quality health care to Stanley, explaining he feels a sense of responsibility to the residents.

“I grew up with these people,” he said. “I need to take care of them properly.”

(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Editor Mike Sasser at 857-1959 or Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to msasser@minotdailynews.com.)