Community Connection: Primary Care Services at McKenzie Health

Meet One of Our Primary Care Physicians

by Dr. Edwin McGroarty, Primary Care

My name is Edwin McGroarty. I am a native Californian and still getting used to the differences in climate here. I am privileged and excited to join the McKenzie Health team. I am in the later stages of my career at this time.

Having attended medical school in the 1990s, I am now in my 24th year of practice. It has been a fulfilling and exciting career. I did not go to college expecting to become a doctor. When I initially went to college, my plan was to become a middle school and high school teacher. I was able to pursue that career and continued my education and ultimately became interested in the medical field.

After teaching for 5 years, I was blessed to be able to attend the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. I was not from the Midwest, having been raised in San Diego, but enjoyed living in Cincinnati and appreciated the opportunity. After medical school, I pursued residency training in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. Weather was definitely an important reason to train there, but the program that selected me was also a very flexible program which allowed me to do extra training in multiple different areas including obstetrics and intensive care medicine. Toward the end of my training, I became interested in military medicine, and I ultimately chose to join the United States Navy.

The US Navy offered me a wide variety of experiences. I had the privilege to serve with the US Marine Corps and also deployed to a variety of places around the world including 17 provinces in Afghanistan and Ramadi, Iraq. After about 10 years of service, I chose to pursue rural medicine. At that time, I felt my skill set was better served in small communities where I was able to provide emergency room care, nursing home care, clinic and inpatient medicine as well as function as a County Coroner and EMS Director. I worked in both New Mexico and Kansas in very small communities. In 2017, I was offered the position to be an emergency department director and provide full-time emergency medicine for approximately 4 years. I worked in a small town in Southwest Kansas and also spent time traveling to northern California to do part-time ER work.

During the COVID public health emergency, I continued to provide emergency department care in Southwest Kansas and also worked with the homeless population in Los Angeles County. In 2021, I chose to stop doing any emergency medicine and primarily focused on clinic medicine and moved to Catalina Island which is a small island off the coast of California. It is a very small community. I was able to do house calls, spend extra time educating patients, and incorporate more preventative care into my practice. I fully expected to remain in California until retiring. Then I was able to take approximately 4 weeks off and spent time working in Europe with Afghan refugees. Based on that experience I decided that there were things I wanted to do outside of medicine here in the United States. That led to more trips outside the US and ultimately traveling to Ukraine to train Ukrainian Army Medics in 2023 and 2024.

In 2024 I began looking for a different opportunity and was very fortunate to visit Watford City in February 2024. I liked the community and was impressed by the hospital. As such, I have committed to being here for five years. I was able to start providing care here in August 2024.

At this time, my practice is limited to primarily outpatient medicine. Occasionally I will do some work for the nursery and cover pediatrics. Based on my training and experience, I do have the ability to care for newborns, children and teenagers, adults, and the elderly. I enjoy sports medicine, preventative medicine, educating patients on their medical conditions, and shared decision making in their care.

I look forward to helping the community on their journey of health and wellness, and am grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Watford City.

Read more about McKenzie Health Primary Care Health Services here. To schedule an appointment with me in the Rural Health Clinic, please call 701-842-3771.