The CPOCT Awards Committee has
announced that Pet Maniquis, MPA, MT(ASCP) POCC(AACC),
is the 2012 recipient of the Point-of-Care
Coordinator of the Year Award. Pet received her
award during the AACC CPOCT Division meeting on July
17th in Los Angeles.
Originally from the Philippines,
relocating to the US to further her studies in
clinical laboratory technology. Pet has 40 years of
experience in laboratory settings and a Master’s
degree in Public Administration with emphasis in
Health Administration from University of
Missouri-Kansas City. She worked at Bethany Medical
Center as special chemistry supervisor, forensic
analyst and laboratory manager. She trained as a
forensic analyst at the FBI laboratory in Arlington,
VA and was a state expert witness for toxicology
until 2000. In 2001, she moved to Providence Medical
Center, eventually becoming the Point of Care
Coordinator. In 2003, the Sisters of Charity of
Leavenworth Health Systems hired Physicians
Reference Laboratory to manage the laboratory
operations at Providence Medical Center and Saint
John Hospital. Pet’s POCC responsibility grew from
two hospitals to twelve hospitals, surgical centers,
rehab hospitals and physician offices.
Her
POCT duties include quality assurance and
performance improvement, quality control review,
coordinating proficiency testing performance, and
writing policies and procedures. She is actively
involved in training and recertification of POC end
users and participates in the evaluation, selection
and validation of POC devices. She implements
devices on units, performs linearity, precision,
correlation and method comparisons, and maintains
POC devices in use.
Click here or on the image to the right
to see Pet on the NBC TV news station in Kansas
City.
Pet is a member of the American Association of
Clinical Chemists (AACC), American Society of
Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), and serves on the
Board of Directors of the Clinical Laboratory
Management Association (CLMA) Kansas City Chapter.
She has helped run the Heart of America POC Network
since its inception in 2004.
Pet volunteers as the technical consultant to the
CLIA-certified Heart to Heart International
Laboratory Volunteer Program. She was the first
laboratorian to serve at a disaster with Heart to
Heart International in Greensburg, KS after the town
was devastated by a tornado. Through Heart to Heart
International’s partnership with JayDoc Clinic, a
free clinic run by Kansas University medical
students, she organized local laboratory volunteers
to offer services in the free clinic in the
evenings. She went to Solola, Guatemala, with HHI on
the WASH (Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
project to help the locals who live around Lake
Atitlan by providing water filters, medication, and
education. She helped establish a clinical
laboratory to provide simple diagnostic tests for
blood and parasites, especially on school children.
In her spare time, Pet enjoys gardening, painting,
architecture, photography, gourmet cooking, and
travel. She has son, Michael, daughter in- law,
Jenny, and granddaughter, Evey.
