A Calling

It’s no wonder Jamie Manning finds herself in healthcare

grew up in healthcare. Her dad, Doug Sewell, went to nursing school after finishing a tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked in nursing administration for many years, and finished his career as a hospital administrator. Her mom, Jeanne Sewell, is an RN who worked for many years in public health and as a nursing instructor.

“Our daily dinnertime conversations were about healthcare,” says Manning, a territory rep for Gericare Medical Supply in Monroeville, Ala.

Twenty-three years ago, she married Mark Manning, a nursing home administrator. Today he serves as a regional administrator working with several nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout south Alabama.

Small wonder that Manning finds herself in healthcare.

Step by step
Manning was born in Mobile, Ala., and raised in Monroeville. She graduated from Troy University in Troy, Ala., with a degree in psychology with minors in biology and communication with the hearing impaired. “I was part of the pre-allied-health program, designed to prepare you for graduate school in any number of health-related fields,” she says. She did indeed get a masters degree – in sports science, with an emphasis on sports medicine and cardiac rehabilitation. While working in a cardiac rehab program in Mobile, she decided to pursue her RN, which she received in 1995 from Jefferson Davis Community College.

While working in home health, she found herself working closely with Hill-Rom, manufacturer of therapy beds. Eventually, she joined the company’s home care division, calling primarily on home health agencies.

“I like working with products I really believe are beneficial to the patient,” she says. “That’s my bridge between nursing and sales.”

In 2001, she took a position with the state of Alabama to help develop a regional plan for ALL Kids, Alabama’s Child Health Insurance Program. Working through private insurance, the program uses federal and state dollars to provide insurance coverage to children under 19 who fail to qualify for Medicaid or private insurance. “We put together a team to work with providers, community partners, families and others to reach these children,” she recalls. “We got it institutionalized, all systems flowing. And the program is alive and well today.”

During her time with ALL Kids, she completed the South Central Public Health Leadership Institute through Tulane University, and was inducted into the Alabama Public Health Association Hall of Fame.

Medical sales
In 2013, as Manning’s project with the state was nearing an end, Gericare owner Billy Jones and Vice President Bob Miller offered her the opportunity to take over the territory of Glenda Prewett, who was retiring after 26 years. “It was a wonderful opportunity,” she says. “I was able to work with Glenda over her last several months with the company; I credit my successful transition largely to this. I still work off many of the notes she left.”

In fact, the most daunting part of her new job was stepping into the big shoes left by Prewett. “She worked so well with all the customers,” says Manning. “So [my job] was making sure I nurtured those relationships, and made the customers feel secure with a brand new rep coming in.”

The clinical skills she had exercised on prior healthcare jobs certainly helped, she adds. Given distributor reps’ big bag of products, “any time you can get a jump start on products helps. It also helped that I was very comfortable with the healthcare setting.” She has found that one of the best parts of her job is the fact that there is no “typical” day. “I may look at new drapes for a facility in the morning, work with wound care products in the afternoon, and finish up addressing enteral needs,” she says.

“Long-term care, as anything else, is constantly changing,” she adds. “There are unique differences in each facility and even in each community. The resident or patient mixes are different. You see ‘traditional’ long-term units, but you also see dementia and rehab units. You see facilities having numerous admissions and discharges each day, which is very different than what we saw several years ago.

“All of these changes strengthen the importance of the distributor rep. Our facilities have numerous challenges meeting the needs of their residents. As distributor reps, our job should be to make their life a little easier by assisting in finding solutions. I feel I have been most successful when I have listened to my customer and matched their need with a solution offered by one of my trusted vendors. It is all about solutions – meeting our customers where they are at the time and helping make things a little easier. My daily prayer is to be a blessing to my customers and in turn a blessing to the people they serve.”

Off duty

Jamie Manning and her husband, Mark, have two children, Jones and Morgan, both of whom attend her alma mater, Troy University. “We have always been very involved in supporting their numerous activities and loved every minute,” she says. “We are now empty-nesters, and enjoying that as well.”

She is a paddle-boarder and avid bridge player. “I am one of nine very special friends that meet weekly to play cards, discuss children and anything else that may arise,” she says. “We have done everything from traveling, running half marathons, supporting local charities and supporting all of our children and families through various adventures. Our children often say they are blessed with nine mothers.”