Survival rates for rural trauma events are lower than for patients who live in urban areas, experts say.

Before dawn on Nov. 18, Dr. Richard Sidwell drove his vintage tractor — a 1950 John Deere Model G — from his home near Bondurant to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the heart of downtown Des Moines. He timed his 19-mile, 90-minute-plus journey to coincide with National Rural Health Day.

Sidwell, a trauma surgery specialist for The Iowa Clinic who practices at Methodist and Blank Children’s Hospitals,...