Dr. Nicole Fliss sails away

By Linda Alice Dewey

Sun contributor

December 15 was the last regular day of work for Dr. Nicole Fliss at Empire Family Care, who arrived on this scene just before Dr. Matthew Houghton closed his office in Glen Arbor. Here is how it happened, why she’s leaving now, and what the future might bring for her and the clinic.

It certainly wasn’t the plan when we moved back here,” says Dr. Fliss of her departure.

In 2013, we moved back to this area from Alaska, having been there 15 years.”

Fliss grew up in Rapid City in Kalkaska County. Her parents and brother have since moved to Tennessee; her sister is a registered nurse in Traverse City.

The Air Force paid my way through medical school at the University of Michigan,” she says. She met her husband, doctor William D. Lange, in Marquette, where both were serving three-year residencies.

After that, the Air Force sent her to a base in Alaska for four years. The childless couple embraced the experience—buying sled dogs, building a cabin in the mountains which they still own, staying after her tour was over to enjoy more wilderness adventures.

When they returned to Michigan, they built their dream house on Rush Lake in Benzie County and bought a sailboat. Settling into their new life, Fliss found her job directing the Empire office of the Crystal Lake Health Center, while Lange became medical director of the hospital in Manistee.

After a few years, however, Lange’s biological clock began to tick. “He has a little different timeline about life,” says Fliss, age 49. “He’s a little more pressed to do adventure now before it’s too late, so that’s part of this whole process.” Lange is 58.

The shift took a few years. First, they learned to sail and really liked it. “Last year,” she says, “we chartered a boat in the Caribbean and sailed the sea for the first time.” The dream of a life of sailing took hold, and the two bought an ocean-worthy boat.

 

The office

Back home at Empire Family Care, Fliss was too busy in the summers and needed extra help. “That’s when Dr. Katie Krezoski-Evans and Dr. Cyrus Ghaemi came into the picture [in 2017],” she says. “With them being here, I took vacation time in the summer for the first time.” They sailed “all over Lake Michigan.” Desiring the freedom to go on longer sailing trips, the couple sold their Rush Lake house this past June and moved into a condo in Traverse City.

At the same time, Fliss gave her notice that she would leave Empire Family Care in December, which marked her five-year anniversary at the practice.

In 2013 when Fliss arrived, Dr. Doug Coles, who built the office, had sold it to the Crystal Lake Health Clinic. “A number of Dr. Cole’s patients transferred to me,” she says, “but it was still pretty quiet.”

Then tragedy struck Glen Arbor. Doc Houghton became seriously ill in the spring of 2014 and closed his practice. He died that summer. “I inherited the majority of that practice,” said Fliss. Now the office serves not only the Glen Arbor/Empire area but Benzie County, too.

 

The big switch

For Fliss, the biggest challenge was switching from Crystal Lake Health Care to become a Munson clinic. That occurred because of the lack of pharmacy in the area after Doc Houghton died. “It behooves [hospitals] to have all the clinics fully staffed,” including pharmacies, she explains. “If they order tests, lab, x-ray, and prescriptions, and the clinics aren’t fully staffed, hospitals suffer.” A hospital-associated pharmacy could also offer special pricing on some prescriptions, which would also benefit patients.

In order for the pharmacy to get put in,” she says, “our clinic had to transfer ownership from Crystal Lake Clinic and be part of the Munson Health Care/Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital. I was okay with it, because I knew the pharmacy was critical. Crystal Lake Clinic came to a deal with Peter [Marinoff, CEO of Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital], and then the pharmacy got built.”

 

Looking back

Though she is ready to embark on this new life adventure, Fliss feels sad about leaving Empire Family Care. “Leaving this job is big,” she says. “I’m gonna miss the people. I do know everybody. I can come in and see people all day, and I don’t even have to look at their chart.

That’s the thing about primary care,” she says. “You get to know people.” Being part of the community has meant a lot to Fliss, who says she calls her patients friends. “That’s what’s lovely about being a family doctor—it’s less formal professional consultative advice.” Because of that, she says, “it almost feels like, as time goes on, I’m more effective.”

For example, she points out, “how many people have I helped through their deaths here? Probably one of the more rewarding parts [of family medicine] is helping people get through end-of-life and helping the families, not people rushing off to the hospital. It’s that calm, home death. It sounds weird, but we’ve done that a lot.”

She also feels good about the condition of the practice. “The clinic’s solid. It’s been extraordinary.”

 

Looking ahead

Although Fliss has left the Empire practice, Lange will remain at Manistee through May. In the meantime, she will work for Munson Urgent Care until they depart next summer.

First they will sail south to Chicago and down to the Gulf of Mexico by the end of summer. Then, it’s off to the Bahamas and islands south.

About her new life ahead, Fliss feels “excited and apprehensive and scared a little bit, for a number of reasons.” She’s coming to terms with her concerns over the potential financial impact and issues about safety on the ocean. “I think we intend at the beginning to not do really long ocean passages, so we’re not at sea, away from land, for weeks on end, maybe only a few days, so there’s less chance to run into a big problem. That’s why the Caribbean’s a good place to start.”

To make ends meet, they plan to earn money by working here during hurricane season. She could also return to Empire and work for stints. “Dr. Ghaemi and Krezoski and their spouses are friends, and they like to travel together. I might fill in for them when they’re gone. If it works out with our schedule, I could come and do that.”

The doctor concedes that none of their plans are set in stone and freely admits that she and her husband could decide they hate sailing and change their minds. On the other hand, they might decide to sail around the world, although Fliss feels some trepidation over that. “I want to have more experience sailing on the ocean before I commit to anything like that.”

Sail away, Dr. Fliss. You have served us well.