Dr. Sally Sange, M.D.: Blazing her own trail
by Kathy Hagood
Sally Sange, M.D., practices gynecology in a way that’s completely out
of the norm in these days of managed care.
Rather than being based at
a cold, generic office, Sange is housed at a historic home on North
Grove Street in Merritt Park Place. There’s even a chandelier in her
examination room. Sange hosted yoga lessons at her office until a yoga
studio opened in the area.
Because she doesn’t
overbook, patients tend to have a short wait to see her. There are few
chairs in the waiting room.
“I love my practice. Every
day I get to work with the most wonderful women,” Sange says.
Sange has often taken the
road less traveled, and found success along the way.
She grew up on Merritt
Island, a popular cheerleader and the valedictorian of her senior class,
then majored in Arabic, spent a year in Egypt, worked for a foreign
embassy, and taught poetry in the schools before pursuing her medical
degree.
“I never thought about becoming a
doctor until I had my first child. My obstetrician was such a wonderful
doctor. He inspired me,” Sange says.
After completing her residency in 1990, Sange practiced obstetrics as well as gynecology until 2000 when she
went into private practice as a gynecologist only. She had grown
frustrated with managed care and decided to get off the HMO
merry-go-round.
“The doctor should be the one
determining the treatment,” she says.
Sange is able to maintain
her independence because she charges all patients, except for those on
Medicare, upfront for her services. Those who are insured are given
receipts that they can use to file with their insurers.
“Most of my patients are
insured but they come to me anyway for more personalized care,” Sange
says.
Because Sange wants her
patients to take an active role in their health care, she helps educate
them. The women’s health columns she wrote for the About Me section of
“Florida Today” are posted on her Web site.
Before an exam Sange
consults with the patient in her office’s sunroom. She takes extra time
to answer each patient’s questions. Her patients appreciate that.
Jeannie Gaydan of Cape
Canaveral, for example, first visited Sange a number of years ago for a
second opinion on whether Gaydan needed a hysterectomy.
“Dr. Sange provided me several options and
took time to answer all my questions about each one,” Gaydan said. “She
never made me feel rushed and even complimented my questions. I made my
choice confidently, feeling cared for and informed. I could have had
surgery but I chose an alternative approach, which thankfully worked.”
Sange’s office coordinator
Kat Baker, who’s spent the last 20 years in the medical field, says
Sange is unusual in her profession.
“She’s someone who always
wants to keep learning. She keeps up with the latest developments in
medicine. That’s refreshing to see because not all doctors do that,”
Baker says.
Sange is often approached
by doctors fed up with managed care companies who are interested in
learning how she practices without being affiliated with managed care.
“My first piece of advice
is ‘Be willing to take a 60 percent pay cut,’” she says. “The way I do
things isn’t for everyone.”
Sange carefully timed her
exit from the managed health care world. Her son was out of college, and
she had savings to cover her daughter’s remaining two years of
education.
Her son Noah, 31, now is
in global finance at DHL in New York City, and daughter Kate, 29, is a
marketing executive for Marriott in Palm Beach and mother of Sange’s
grandson, Nicholas, 4.
“I could take the risk of
going out on my own because I was only risking myself,” Sange said.
The last baby Sange
delivered was her grandson. She was in the room with her daughter when
her daughter’s doctor suggested Sange deliver the child.
“It’s an experience I’ll
always treasure,” she says.
Sange first moved to
Merritt Island with her family in 1955, and her parents, Ty and Phyllis
Harris, soon built a house there. Her father opened a Buick dealership
in Cocoa, and began serving on the Wuestoff board of directors, the
beginning of a 43-year tenure.
“He was active in the
community, and interested in health care,” she says.
As an eighth grader at Edgewood Jr.
High School Sange served as head cheerleader and was named “Best All
Around.” Then as a senior at Merritt Island High School she was voted
“Miss Congeniality” and represented Merritt Island in the Junior Miss
pageant.
But the golden girl wasn’t just pretty
and sociable; she was smart, finishing her high school career as the
valedictorian.
Sange was fascinated by languages and
had a knack for learning them, so she decided to attend Georgetown
University because of it reputation in languages. At first she thought
she might major in Spanish, but ended up choosing Arabic.
“A friend in my dorm was studying
Arabic and I became intrigued by her flash cards. Arabic is a beautiful
language,” she says.
After graduating with honors, she did a
yearlong Arabic fellowship in Cairo. Because she wanted to continue
learning more Arabic she decided to seek a job at an Arabic-language
speaking embassy in Washington, D.C.
“I wrote to every Arabic-speaking
embassy there was,” she says.
She landed a job as an aide to the
cultural attaché in the Iraqi Interests Section of the Embassy of India.
Her coworkers were all men.
“They wouldn’t let me
touch the coffee pot, but they had no problem with me moving furniture,”
she said with a laugh.
When she married poet
professor Gary Sange, the embassy staff made much of her nuptials. She
has warm memories of that time in her life.
“My heart goes out to Iraq
because I worked and bonded with her diplomats in the early Seventies,”
Sange says. “My boss was the cultural attaché, a mild-mannered
epidemiologist who had been dean of a veterinary school in Baghdad. I
ferried his wife and children to doctors' appointments to interpret for
them.”
After leaving the embassy,
Sange moved to Virginia with her new husband. A poet herself, Sange
taught in Virgina’s Poetry in the Schools program. She also taught
Arabic at Virginia Commonwealth University.
After her children went to
school she pursued her medical degree following her earlier inspiration
by obstetrician Joseph Battiste. She was concerned she might face
discrimination in medical school as there were so few women in the field
at the time.
“But I never felt that,
which was a pleasant surprise,” she said.
Sange excelled and was tapped for
membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She was
chosen to be chief resident during her final year and was honored with
the William C. Langdon Humanitarian Award
With the completion of her medical
degree and the break up of her marriage, Sange decided to move back to
Merritt Island to practice with colleagues at the Women’s Center. She
was affiliated with Wuesthoff and Cape Canaveral Hospitals and rose to
be chief of the medical staff at Cape Canaveral Hospital.
After ten years at the Women’s Center, Sange decided to stop delivering babies and to go out on her own.
“It was time for a change,” Sange says.
Life is much more peaceful now she’s
not on call for emergencies and baby deliveries. She doesn’t have to
worry about hefty obstetrics insurance premiums. And she enjoys her
consultations more because she can spend as much quality time as she
needs with her patients.
Although she makes much less money than
she did before, Sange says she feels more successful. If she sounds a
bit philosophical, that’s because she is. She spends time every day
practicing yoga and meditating.
“I believe that we all project our own
view of reality as if onto a screen. Meditation is my opportunity to
focus on the light bulb.
Sange easily does a headstand, a
challenging yoga position.
“Oh I’ve been doing those since I was a
little girl. But we called it gymnastics back then,” she says laughing.