For a veteran laboratorian with more than 40 years’ experience in laboratory medicine, wearing multiple hats is all in a day’s work.
As the laboratory supervisor of The People’s Clinic, a busy, sole practitioner doctor’s office in Del Rio, Texas, he draws all patient blood samples, as well as conducts drug screening and breath alcohol tests for prospective employees of the local Department of Transportation office and other employers.
He also performs full chemistry, hematology and urinalysis testing for the facility -- a volume of about 40,000 tests per year -- and maintains all the laboratory’s records and documentation. As the business manager of the practice, he even bills the doctor’s patients.
And if all that wasn’t enough, Pat also moonlights on weekends as a technologist at nearby Val Verde Regional Medical Center, working alongside his son, Patricio, Jr., who followed him into the field 12 years ago. He works at the hospital, he said, because he enjoys the challenge of performing high complexity laboratory tests on the center’s large-scale, sophisticated equipment – just as he enjoys the people contact that his work at the clinic, specializing in adult medicine, provides.
“We see many geriatric patients in our practice, many of whom have been coming to the clinic for a long time, mostly for treatment of chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease,” said Pat. “At first, a lot of them would object to having to be ‘stuck’ a lot with a needle, but I’ve been doing this kind of work for so long, that they soon get comfortable with me, telling me I have the ‘right touch,’” he said. He added that “you just have to talk to the people” in order to keep them calm and at ease, particularly during procedures that require multiple blood draws during a single visit.
Pat helped his friend and clinic physician, Dr. Noe Musquiz, set up the practice in 1984, after a stint in the military, including working in an Army hospital in Hawaii, and jobs at other hospital and physician office laboratories in Texas. A graduate of Commonwealth College of Sciences in Houston, where he earned a diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology, he is certified by the Association of American Medical Technologists as well as by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
His previous hospital experience taught him the value of spotless record keeping, which, he said, enables him to stay on top of his myriad duties as lab technologist, supervisor, record keeper, and proficiency testing and quality control coordinator. He is proud of the perfect scores his lab consistently earns in accreditation surveys, and the fact that he has never missed a day of work during his long career. But he is prouder still of his son, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from the University of Texas Health Science Center, and who also runs a laboratory for nearby Laughlin Air Force Base’s Medical Group. “While I never encouraged him to go into the profession, he really enjoys the work, and he’s an excellent technician, “said Pat, adding that his son’s lab also regularly receives perfect scores from surveying teams.
His advice for aspiring laboratorians? “If you like people contact, a physician office laboratory is probably the best place for you,” he said, citing the patients who have come to depend on him, and his close relationship with Dr. Musquiz, who relies on Pat for both his laboratory skills and expertise as well as his management abilities. But a major benefit of the laboratory profession, he added, is the wide range of employment opportunities it offers. “As much as I like dealing with people, I missed the medical technology aspect of laboratory work, which is why I found a way to do both,” he said.
The People’s Clinic has been a COLA client since 1997.
