After years of seeing the commute to her private general gynecology and menopausal medicine practice in Northeast Coconut Grove grow to almost 90 minutes every day, Dr. Cecilia Grande has now moved to a more convenient location in South Miami.
The new office, located at One 7000 Place, was personally designed by Dr. Grande to prioritize privacy and be up to the standards of the American Disabilities Act. In-office procedures include routine, non-obstetric care such as general diagnoses and treatments, ultrasounds, uterine biopsies, colposcopies and sonohysterograms. Any procedures that require general anesthesia must take place in South Miami Hospital, located conveniently across the street.
“I like this space so much I wish I had moved here five years ago,” said Dr. Grande. “This building is great. There is a community of doctors here, it’s centrally located, much more accessible and if I need to be in the operating room, South Miami Hospital is just one minute away.”
A bilingual graduate from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Dr. Grande began private practice in general gynecology and obstetrics after completing her residency with the University of Miami at Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1998. Although she enjoyed her work in obstetrics, when she and her husband, a Miami-Dade firefighter, decided to start a family, she was forced to make a career change that ultimately led to a specialization in menopausal medicine.
“When my son was born I realized that with the type of job my husband has that it was going to be very hard for me to stay in obstetrics, because there are no set hours,” she said. “I decided to start a GYN-only practice in 2004 and I had such a large volume of patients in menopause that I became more focused in that area. I started preparing more, decided to take the boards and now that is my specialty.”
Dr. Grande strives to provide all of her patients, whose ages range from young to postmenopausal, with a continuum of care that ensures comfort, privacy and professionalism. Assisting her is a dedicated staff that includes medical assistant Mayra Roura and Zhenia Tornes, a physician and nurse practitioner who worked as a doctor in Cuba for 11 years in adult family medicine before immigrating to the United States and earning a master’s degree in family adult nursing.
“She has not only all the training she received here, but her medical school experience from before equips here with much more knowledge than a normal practitioner,” she said of Torres.
As someone currently undergoing hormone changes herself, who works full-time and has children, Dr. Grande says she can empathize with what many of her patients are going through. In some cases, she can draw from her own experiences to provide perspective.
“Women live longer now and hopefully most of us live half our lives in menopause, but it’s not an easy time,” she said. “It’s nice to help with the transition and to be able to say to my patients that I’ve been there, done that and that it’s going to be OK. In the last 10 years we’ve radically changed the way menopause is perceived. It’s not a disease, it’s something that happens to everybody.”
Dr. Cecilia Grande, M.D. is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a is a North American Menopausal Society Certified Menopausal Practitioner. She has previously practiced medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital (1994-1998), Mount Sinai Medical Center (1998-1999) and Miami Children’s Hospital (1998-2002) and continues to practice at South Miami Hospital (since 1998) and Mercy Hospital (since 1999).
Her office is located at One 7000 Place, Suite 400. For more information call 305- 250-5216.
For more information on One 7000 Place, managed by Healthcare Realty, contact Wayne E. Stringer, president, Stringer Realty Services, Inc., at 305-772-2801.
I think it would be nice to have the gynecology and menopausal practice in the hospital. It might help to have that kind of doctor nearby in case there is anything wrong with the person in the hospital. It might also make sure that you have the right help available.