Deaconess Memorial Adds Experienced Nurse Practitioner to Hospitalist Team

Deaconess Memorial Medical Center has added Dixie Stiles, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, GNP-BC, CEN, CCRN to its medical associate staff, assigning her to the hospitalist team responsible for the day-to-day care of patients admitted to the facility. The hire was announced Dec. 29, 2025.

Stiles brings more than 23 years of bedside nursing experience and dual roles as a nurse practitioner and registered nurse. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Phoenix and a doctorate of nursing from Azusa Pacific University. Her clinical background includes more than nine years as a nurse practitioner specializing in geriatric primary medicine and more than 12 years in gastroenterology. Most recently she provided hospitalist services in a behavioral health acute care hospital while concurrently working for over 22 years as a registered nurse in emergency medicine.

Her certifications include Family Nurse Practitioner, Geriatric Practitioner, Critical Care Registered Nurse, Emergency Nurse and Legal Nurse Consultant. She also holds membership in professional organizations including the American College of Nurse Practitioners, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the Emergency Nursing Association, the American Geriatric Society and Sigma Theta Tau.

For Dubois County residents, Stiles’ arrival has direct implications for inpatient care. Hospitalists coordinate diagnostic workups, specialist consults and discharge planning; an experienced clinician with geriatric and emergency medicine expertise may help address the complex clinical and social needs that commonly accompany hospitalization among older adults. Her behavioral health hospitalist experience is also relevant as hospitals nationwide and locally care for patients whose mental health conditions intersect with medical illness, mobility limitations and chronic disease.

The appointment also reflects broader workforce and care-delivery trends that affect local access to care. Advanced practice providers with doctoral training and specialty certifications increasingly take central roles in hospital medicine teams, helping sustain inpatient capacity and continuity when physician staffing is constrained. For patients who must travel for specialty services, having a hospitalist with geriatric and gastroenterology experience at a local facility can reduce disruption, speed treatment decisions and support safer transitions back to home or community-based services.

Beyond clinical skills, Stiles’ combination of acute care, emergency and legal nursing qualifications may contribute to stronger documentation, care coordination and multidisciplinary collaboration at the hospital. That has implications for patient safety and for equitable care delivery for older adults and other populations that experience fragmented services.

Deaconess Memorial framed the hire as an effort to bolster its hospitalist staff and oversight of admitted patients. For families and caretakers in Dubois County, the addition signals an investment in inpatient expertise at a time when integrated, team-based approaches are essential to managing complex and often overlapping health and social needs.