Header
 

 

 New Leadership

Newly hired King’s Daughters’
Hospital CEO set goal

Dozier brings solid track record
for meeting challenges

(January 2015) – Carol Dozier is the new chief executive officer of King’s Daughters’ Hospital at a challenging juncture in health care. A nurse by profession, she remains committed to the value of the human touch. She is passionate about the role of the healing arts in health care. Music, art, even pets, are interwoven into the fabric of medication and monitors at this community hospital, located in its 1-year-old building on the Madison, Ind., hilltop.
Yet, Dozier is savvy about the realities of today. Clinicians do their work on computers, and this means they “talk” with patients while tapping away on a computer. Often this means less face-to-face contact, which is tough for older, more-experienced staff. Moreover, health care reform presents a challenge for all hospitals, which now see less reimbursement. In the future, reimbursement will be linked to outcomes, that is, how well does the treatment work?

Photo by Alice Jane Smith

Carol Dozier took over as CEO at Madison’s King’s Daughters’ Hospital in fall 2014, filling the shoes of longtime CEO Roger Allman.


“We need to make sure we’re doing the best we can do,” said Dozier, 51, who took over as CEO in July 2013, after the June 2013 retirement of longtime CEO Roger Allman.
“It’s been a trying time.” She adds that she needs to guide the hospital to “work smarter” and “make sure we’re doing our best” in today’s health-care society.
Dozier came well equipped for the challenge. While serving as chief executive officer at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyo., she accomplished a business turn-around. When Dozier became CEO in Ivinson in 2007, the facility was a struggling small hospital. In the multimillion-dollar expansion, a dialysis center was added. A 30-room tower was built for patients. Other upgrades were made. Dozier also oversaw Ivinson’s affiliation with the University of Colorado Health in January 2013.
\ When she left the rural 99-bed hospital in 2013 to move to Madison, it was able to pay cash for a major expansion. “It was a nice way to leave there,” she said. “We had a good team.” Of all her accomplishments, she is most proud of that one.
Although she has been in Madison just 18 months, she was asked what she might say were she to leave her job here. First of all, she has no intentions of moving anywhere. Dozier and her husband, Jim, bought a home here and have settled into the community. Their son, Nick, just graduated from high school. They enjoy wandering around downtown, shopping, traveling to see their other four children, Michael, chief information officer for a health-care facility in Louisiana; Stephanie, director of a maternal child unit in Valparaiso, Ind.; Krista, controller for a hospital in Missouri, and Melissa, who is in medical school in Seattle.
“We are low key people,” Dozier said. They have a Yorkie named Liz.
On reflection, Dozier concluded that she’d like her legacy to be one that said King’s Daughters’ Hospital is the first place that people want to go if they need health care.
Since returning to Indiana to become CEO of King’s Daughters’ Hospital, Dozier has been working to open communications with the staff and the community. She writes a blog for the hospital’s website, and she has a Facebook page, both ‘firsts’ for hospital administrators. She favors accessibility and tries to be partners to staff and the community through sharing information so readers will better understand issues.
“I want to let people know the what and especially the why and gain insight into what we are,” she said. One big goal is to “make this a good place for people to work.
Dozier is a member of the steering committee of Envision Jefferson County, which just finished a strategic plan for the community. Also, she has established a Community Advisory Committee composed of 25 people. They meet every other month to exchange information. “It’s been very helpful to me,” she said.
Issues that have been raised include waiting time, billing issues and matters that “didn’t run smoothly.” In 2015, she anticipates fewer complaints about bills, also noting that prices on “big ticket” procedures (such as MRIs) were lowered in 2014.
In February, a neurologist will begin practice at King’s Daughters’ Hospital, Dozier was pleased to announce. “That will be good.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is working to expand HIP 2 to give health-care coverage to more people in Indiana. KDH will help people sign up. “This will be a big benefit to our community, she said.

KDH Cancer Center

Photo by Alice Jane Smith

A Feb. 22 Open House is planned for the new $11 million Cancer Center at King’s Daughters’ Hospital. The new Cancer Center is scheduled to open Feb. 23.


Moreover, she is pleased to say that there will be an open house on Feb. 22 for the $11 million Cancer Center, and it will open on Feb. 23, 2015. There will be personal touches in the Cancer Center, such as a fireplace and family rooms. The center has its own dog, Ty Walker, a bulldog who is a registered pet therapy partner with Chelsie Bentz, clinical oncology pharmacist.
“He has a great disposition and likes to go with me to deliver chemotherapy,” Bentz said. “He does just as much for the staff as he does the patients.” Bentz rescues special needs bulldogs. By taking her bulldogs to the cancer center, she is able to show cancer patients that “just because they are down they not out.”
Her previous dog, Tripp, died last year of a heart murmur. There is a plaque in the lobby honoring Tripp. “It is neat that King’s Daughters’ recognizes how important dogs are,” she said. “It is a beautiful thing.” The plaque will be moved to the new Cancer Center when it opens.
Asked about the role of dogs in the hospital, Dozier said that therapy dogs are used in the health care setting.
In some cases, a patient’s dog is permitted to visit because “pets are important, and it seems a little wrong to deny this,” she said.
In the lobby, there now is a piano donated by Dr. James Jackson and Alice Carlson Jackson. Volunteers play the piano, helping put people in a “different frame of mind” when they come into the hospital. Dozier said she hopes to expand the “healing arts” program. 
While in Wyoming, Dozier taught at a community college. She was president of the chamber of commerce, which names her Chamber Business Person of the Year. In addition, she was Names Business Person of the Year by the Economic Development Group. She served on the United Way Board.
Before going to Wyoming, Dozier was vice president of patient support services for Porter Health System in Valparaiso, Ind., and chief executive officer for Fleming County Hospital in Flemingsburg, Ky.
She earned an undergraduate degree from Purdue University and a master’s degree in business administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is a native of Valparaiso and spent more than 22 years working in the Porter County Health Services System before leaving to broaden her career.
Last year, the hospital staff joined forces with the Madison Art Club to create a rotating art exhibit on the walls of the hospital’s café. Titled “Art of Healing,” the exhibit showcases local artists’ work for sale and is juried into the exhibit by a committee that includes hospital staff members. Submission of artwork to the exhibit is open to any artist for consideration.

Commenting on her contribution to the arts community, local artist Teresa Waller wrote on her Facebook page, “The creative community of Madison is fortunate to have Carol Dozier in its midst. The partnership with the Madison Art Club to bring the work of local and regional artists to the walls of the new hospital would not be possible without her vision and support.”

Back to January 2015 Articles.

 

 

Copyright 1999-2015, Kentuckiana Publishing, Inc.

Pick-Up Locations Subscribe Staff Advertise Contact Submit A Story Our Advertisers Columnists Archive Area Links Area Events Search our Site Home Monthly Articles Calendar of Events Kentucky Speedway Madison Chautauqua Madison Ribberfest Madison Regatta