GREAT FALLS — According to Wallethub, Montana is now the best state in the country in which to practice medicine.
Wallethub used 19 factors, including annual wage and hospitals per capita, to compare all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine which is the best for doctors to practice in.
The top five states:
1: Montana
2: South Dakota
3: Idaho
4: Wisconsin
5: Minnesota
The states at the bottom of the list are New Jersey, Alaska, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
While that may surprise some of you, what the doctors MTN talked with said when asked what makes Montana so great may not surprise you.
Alex Bules, an internal medicine physician at Benefis Health System, has been practicing medicine in Montana since 2016.
What he likes most is the people he gets to take care of.
"There's a certain work ethic that the farmers and ranchers have out here that is really unmatched in the other parts of the country where I've worked," Bules said.
"Work-life balance for me was huge. I wanted to live somewhere where I could be outdoors and explore all kinds of unique parts of the country," said Bules.
Dr. Mark Van Tassel is a diagnostic radiologist at Benefis and has been practicing medicine in Montana since 2017, after completing medical school and residency in the Midwest.
"When I was looking for a job (and) this job came up in Montana I was pretty excited," Van Tassel said. "I wanted to be back in the Mountain West. I grew up in Utah. I enjoy the mountains, enjoy all the activities that come along with the Mountain West and the Mountains."
Montana received a total score of 73.45 in the survey, almost six points better than the next best state, South Dakota.
Like Bules, Van Tassel said the people he gets to interact with working in Montana are a big reason why he likes working in the state.
"It's cool to be around great people. That's a big deal for me," said Van Tassel.
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