The 2021 COVID Cares Team is CVS #10181 at 5400 Highway 280 in East Hoover, Alabama. Not only has this location vaccinated many against COVID-19 in their community, but they have also taken the initiative to provide personal home delivery to elderly and immunocompromised patients who can’t make it to the pharmacy. Beyond the pandemic, their patients have shared how they go above and beyond to care for every single person in the pharmacy—whether that’s soothing vaccination fears, using a lunch break to deliver an important prescription, or just making each customer feel like family.

Sydney Carter, Pharm.D., and Keith Norman, Pharm.D., serve as the two full-time pharmacists on staff. Additionally, there are four full-time pharmacy technicians (Nirvika Desai, Donika Patel, Neha Shah, and Alicia Slaughter) and four pharmacy interns (Amanda Johnson, Lee Masters, Hunter Hawthorne, and Stanley Foster). They work alongside part-time technicians, including Angela Morales, Danielle Allen, Reggie Swanson, and Toreka Powell. 

Together the team fills an average of 2,000 prescriptions a week, which is roughly 300 per day! For them, their work starts with building relationships with patients and evolves into a commitment to patient care.

Here, Dr. Carter, Desai, and Masters talk to SingleCare about what motivates the team’s exceptional service and how they continue to excel throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

How does your team go above and beyond for customers?

Sydney Carter (pharmacy manager): My team tries to learn everyone’s names and get to know our customers. That’s what gets you through the long days—getting to know people. We’re not just robots slinging pills to pay the bills. We’re remembering the little details about what manufacturer the patient likes or if a customer’s parent is in the hospital. We enjoy making connections and being the face of health care for the community. The pharmacy is the most accessible place for people. 

My team has such dedication to what they do and such a strong work ethic.

My attitude is calm and full of customer service—wanting to please others and wanting to give the best healthcare. That exudes to the rest of the team. My team has such dedication to what they do and such a strong work ethic. I’m very thankful for that.

Nirvika Desai (pharmacy technician): As soon as a customer walks in, we try to treat them as family. We greet them by name so they feel at home in our pharmacy. When our customers tell us, “We love you guys,” that really makes our day. 

Lee Masters (pharmacy intern): I’ve worked at this store for seven years, first as a pharmacy technician, and now as an intern. We’ve always made a point of accommodating whatever it is that the customer wants. We have a lot of patients who want different prescription manufacturers, and we’ll order that for them. We are all about trying to get to know our patients, knowing them by name, and treating them like family whenever they come in. We have a lot of people who we see multiple times a week. They become pretty close relationships when you see them so much. All it takes in a pharmacy is two or three people who are working really hard and doing everything they can. Then, that rubs off and makes everybody want to do the same thing. 

What’s a memorable story about your pharmacy team?

Dr. Carter: One day our delivery system was down. A patient needed an essential diabetes medication. My technician, Reggie Swanson, asked if he could go on his lunch break to deliver the medication to the patient’s home instead of taking that time for himself. Reggie dropped it at the patient’s door so he could feel safe and avoid missing a dose. That’s just one example of the many times my staff problem solves and prioritizes patient care.

Masters: We do everything that we can to help our patients get the lowest price on their prescriptions, especially with programs like SingleCare. Every single time we have a patient whose insurance doesn’t cover a certain medication—which happens all the time—we use options like SingleCare. We try to make sure that the price isn’t what’s stopping the patient from taking the medication.

How has your team helped keep patients safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Desai: There have been shortages of medications and COVID vaccines. As a team, we will always call another store and try to go get it so that our patients can have what they need. If they are near us, we will even deliver medication right to their door. Especially elderly and immunocompromised patients, we are willing to help them get the items they need without physically coming into the store. During the pandemic, technicians were allowed to get immunization certificates to help vaccinate our patients.

Dr. Carter: We clean, have plexiglass at the registers, and wear masks. We also offer home delivery and help patients shop for front of the store items through the drive-thru. On top of that, our store was one of the first in the state of Alabama to offer COVID-19 vaccines. We’re in the top two in our district in number of vaccinations a day. We just want our patients to trust us to help them feel safe.