Doug Doris — Every Job is Important

by Margaret Minuth
December 2009

For Doug Doris, CEO of Central Carolina Hospital in Sanford, the most important qualities an executive should have are a constitution for hard work, a great attitude, and strong interpersonal skills. “That’s basically the secret to my success,” says Doris. “I’ve been lucky. I fell into healthcare back in the 70s, and by applying those qualities throughout my career, I was able to transition from one industry to another.”

An Atlanta Georgia native, Doris began his career working for Dobbs House in the airline food industry in 1974. He had graduated from Georgia State with a degree in Finance, but in the mid-70s, jobs in banking were hard to find. “It was the worst banking recession… until recently,” he says. When the company discovered he had a degree, they promoted him to Hot Food Supervisor. Serving 10,000 meals a day for Delta Airlines and working the 4:30am-1pm shift was physically demanding. “It left no time for a personal life, so I had to look elsewhere,” Doris says.

Oddly enough, the food service industry would be his segue into healthcare. “Both are strong customer-service industries, so you can apply the same basic principals to both industries,” he adds.

When a friend of his went to work at Grady Hospital, Doris asked for an interview in the food service department and was hired to work at Grady Hospital in Atlanta. At age 24, he had 60 employees reporting to him. He says the same principles then apply today: like who you work with and focus on building a good team. “And remember every job is important,” he adds.

Eventually, Doris accepted a job as the Food Services Director for a 150-bed community hospital. That was the start of his upward movement into healthcare management. After becoming Assistant Administrator at Shallowford Community Hospital in Georgia, Doris was offered his first CEO position in 1989 at a community hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.

At that time, Doris and his wife had two small children. They had never been to that party of the country and immediately recognized the differences from life in Georgia. “It was a culture shock—times ten,” he laughs. After three years there, his hospital was sold, so he went to work in St. Louis, Missouri, as chief operating officer until he was promoted to CEO at Lutheran Medical Center.

With hospital mergers and acquisitions happening across the country, the company for whom he worked sold his hospital, and the new owner put him in charge of a 611-bed hospital and a 525-bed hospital. “I stayed in St. Louis until 2006. Then I decided to take time off to recharge.”

After regrouping, Doris’ next step would be accepting the interim CEO position for Central Carolina Hospital in August 2006. “I liked the facility and the area so much that I decided to stay,” says Doris. “This part of the country is very similar to where we grew up.” The following January, Doris was named the permanent CEO of the Sanford hospital. “My wife and I have enjoyed the move to Sanford. I live only about eight minutes from work, and that’s a big change from the commutes where I have lived. Sanford is a small town, but it’s close enough to Raleigh if we want to go to a bigger city. The only problem is our children are still in St. Louis, and we miss seeing them.”

When asked which jobs were the hardest, Doris smiles, “The hardest job is always the last one—but if you persevere and know that you will succeed, you will.” He continues, “I have a great management team here, and we are well on our way to becoming the hospital of choice for our community. We’re surrounded by some great tertiary care facilities, but our quality scores are strong, and we are committed to our community. I think people are seeing that now, and they are showing they appreciate the changes we’ve made by using our hospital and our services.”

Margaret Minuth is director of marketing and public relations at Central Carolina Hospital in Sanford.

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