Entrepreneur Ryan Maher knows the importance of access to healthcare in a small town like Isabel. Horizon Health’s Isabel medical clinic is a vital part of keeping the community thriving.
“Had it not been here you might as well call the coroner because you’re going to die,” Maher said. “There’s just not access to healthcare otherwise.”
In the emergency room world, the “golden hour” suggests a patient receive definitive treatment 60 minutes after an injury. For a remote location like Isabel those 60 minutes are exhausted driving to the clinic.
The Isabel clinic periodically serves as a staging area for patients with life-threatening injuries or illnesses. Helicopters land in Isabel to transport patients to the hospital and more intensive care.
“It’s a vital necessity because we are so far removed from any hospital or emergency room situation,” Maher said of his local clinic.
His roots run deep in the Isabel community where both sides of his family homesteaded beginning in 1910 – the same year Isabel became a community at the end of the railroad line. Maher says the town is still at the end of the line. The closest community west of Isabel is Bison – 60 miles away.
He’s been a patient in Isabel since he was a small child and still chooses the clinic for his care.
“It’s just so important to have those services here,” he said. “If we didn’t have those service here we would just be lost.”
After earning an accounting degree from Black Hills State University and traveling the country for two years, Maher chose to make Isabel his permanent home. He’s invested time and resources in a variety of businesses including opening a grocery store in Isabel that filled a 12-year void. Prior to that he owned a café and bar from 2003 to 2019 and operates an insurance agency in nearby Timber Lake. He represented the area in the South Dakota Senate.
Maher supports the Horizon Health Foundation and was involved in the Cowboys Care Bull Bash, an event to bring awareness to rural healthcare in northwest South Dakota.
“To be able to take a town of 130 people and put together over $100,000 in commitments to sustaining a health care clinic in Isabel shows true commitment that we’re serious about having some form of healthcare in this part of the state,” he said.
Visit the Horizon Health Foundation to learn more about how you can impact accessible, quality healthcare for your friends and neighbors.