Local Walmart pharmacist T’Rheya Eberhardt has been awarded the “Best Technician for Education” award in honor of American Pharmacists Month.
SingleCare, the prescription savings service that helps consumers save millions of dollars on medications, has announced the winners of its fourth-annual Best of the Best Pharmacy Awards.
Eberhardt has been a pharmacy technician for 10 years, three of which she’s spent at Walmart #3741 in Atlanta.
After receiving word about the award Eberhardt said she was excited.
“My breathe was taken away, I was like, ‘really, I have never heard of this.’ I mean I’ve heard of SingleCare, but I didn’t know about the best of the best awards,” she said.
The Best Technician for Education award, Eberhardt said, stands for “someone who is doing their work or that has done their work over the years and the acknowledgment of being educated throughout multiple pharmacies knowing what the customers or patients need.”
Eberhardt said receiving the award means so much to her.
“Just knowing that someone took the time out to congratulate me or showed their appreciation for me was awesome. I’m glad that I could get through and help people that are appreciative and show their appreciation,” she said.
Eberhardt began pursuing a career in pharmacy in 2010-2011 with a program at Rite-Aid Pharmacy.
“They (Rite-Aid) were experiencing lack of technicians, so I was manager there and was like ‘maybe I want to try a change in careers,’ and I always wanted to learn more about medicine and be in the medical field in some type of way,” she said.
At the time, Eberhardt said, her grandmother had gone through different diagnoses from the hospital and was taking different medications.
“I just wanted to be more aware because at the time, I was her caretaker as well,” she said. “I just wanted more knowledge and make sure she was taking the right things and just for me to know what this stuff was including the side effects. It drew me in. I just wanted to learn more.”
With her demanding work and care for her customers, Eberhardt has made an impact in her community. Customers appreciate her personalized approach and her dedication to meeting their needs—which often means going the extra mile.
In a press release, a customer shared a time where Eberhardt worked during her break to ensure they were serviced.
“My wife wanted to transfer her prescriptions to Walmart, but there was a breakdown in getting the information from the former pharmacy. Ms. Eberhardt worked during her break to get the information she needed,” the customer said.
Eberhardt said she has always wanted to give back to her community where she grew up.
“I know most of the people in the community but also there’s a lot of elderly people in the community. I feel like we need more help for them, and I wanted to be a part of that,” she said.
She also said it’s important to give back to the community because it’s her community.
“I would want to see what I could do to better my community and to help people and all pharmacies. I like to see our pharmacies doing well or trying to strive. Pharmacy is a big part of the community,” she said.
To her customers, Eberhardt said, thank you.
“Thank you for returning, thank you for showing their appreciation, thank you for giving us the chance to help with their life because the medicine they use, some if not most, are depending on that. We just appreciate them for letting us help them and keep coming back,” she said.