This probably won’t help you since you live in a small town.
Finding a doctor in the united states sucks. Literally the worst experience I have ever had was transitioning to a PPO insurance policy after being in a combine managed HMO / healthcare group.
People told me for years “oh, that health care provider sucks. You get sub par care and nobody ever knows your name.” You know what else I got? Same day doctor visits and same day specialists, literally anytime I wanted or needed anything. I had reasonable medical care at a reasonable schedule for a reasonable price.
When my insurance switched to a PPO, people told me “oh, you will love this doctor! He is so great!” And… every… single… time… it is exactly as you described. “New patients are 6 months out.” And when I finally got a primary care doctor, they would recommend specialist who were their friends also in private practices with 6 months waiting lists.
Private practice medical care is an absolute joke. It’s another shitty system the boomers saw their parents use successfully that simply doesn’t work today.
The solution was to find a high quality medical group in my city. It took me nearly a year to figure it out. Same day doctor visits? Done. Same week specialists? Done. Same system / in network urgent care at the same price as a regular doctors visit? Done.
I don’t care which doctor I see, I just need medical care.