KFF Health News Aug 12 2025 There was no doctor on-site when a patient arrived in early June at the emergency room in the small hospital at the intersection of two dirt roads in this town of 400 residents. There never is. Dahl Memorial's three-bed emergency department — a two-hour drive from the closest hospital with more advanced services — instead depends on physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Physician assistant Carla Dowdy realized the patient needed treatment beyond what the ER