4. Distance to care¶
Status: map published September 2026; clinical review of the guidance page in progress.
The gap¶
Everyone in Minnesota epilepsy care knows the specialists are in Rochester and the Twin Cities. Nobody had put a number on what that means for a child in Kittson County. Delays in reaching an epilepsy specialist are documented to be worst for families far from a center, and the same families face the slowest ambulances: in 31 of 87 counties the slowest tenth of 911 calls take more than 20 minutes to reach the scene.
What the data shows¶
We located every neurologist, child neurologist, and epilepsy subspecialist with a practice address in Minnesota or the border areas of the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Iowa, using the federal provider registry, and measured the distance from every school district office.
Try it: look up your district¶
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Child neurologists serving Minnesota (in state and border areas) | 105 |
| Epilepsy subspecialists | 35 |
| Districts more than 60 miles from a child neurologist | 101 (about 70,000 students) |
| Districts more than 100 miles away | 11 |
| Of the 101 far districts, those also without a findable seizure plan | 80 |
| Districts more than 15 miles from any retail pharmacy | 15 (14 without a findable plan) |
Kittson, Roseau, Cook, and Big Stone counties are farthest. Distances are straight-line; rural drive time runs about a third longer. Minnesota's Level 4 epilepsy centers, the highest designation, are Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the University of Minnesota Medical Center and Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, and Minnesota Epilepsy Group with Children's Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
What we are doing this year¶
- Giving the map to the Minnesota Epilepsy Program at MDH as a candidate "area of need."
- Writing a plain-language page for families: what a Level 4 center is, when to ask for a referral, which Minnesota systems offer tele-neurology and remote EEG, and how Medical Assistance covers travel. We are seeking a clinician to review it before it is promoted.
- Pharmacy distance is now in the same file and the lookup tool, so one map shows the whole picture. The next pass swaps the federal registry for the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy list to drop closed stores.
Check yourself¶
1. What is a Level 4 epilepsy center?
The highest designation from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers: a center that can do full monitoring, complex drug management, and epilepsy surgery. Minnesota has four.
2. Why are border-state clinics included in the map?
A family in Luverne is 30 miles from Sioux Falls and 180 from Minneapolis. Leaving out Sioux Falls would overstate the gap in southwest Minnesota by more than 100 miles.
3. Does 'nearest child neurologist' mean they are taking new patients?
No. The federal registry shows who holds the credential and a practice address, not availability. Treat distances as the best case and ask the clinic about wait times.
For families far from care¶
The Resources & Support page lists Minnesota's pediatric epilepsy programs. Ask your clinic whether it offers video visits; most do.