Dr. Sally Sange, M.D.: Blazing her own trail
by Kathy Hagood
Brevard County, FL -
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.