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Martha Peters: Why I Work at Amber Specialty Pharmacy

June 27, 2017
Amber Specialty Pharmacy
Amber Specialty Pharmacy

There are ongoing conversations happening around our company about “finding your why.” Why do you work here? Why do you do what you do?

I can tell you unflinchingly that I love my job. But when I held my “why” up to compare it to the “whys” of my coworkers, I felt inadequate. Some of them have a chronic illness. Many have lost loved ones to cruel diseases. Others have worked a lifetime dedicated to servicing those living with a chronic condition. If I’m completely honest and tell you how I ended up at Amber Specialty Pharmacy, we might both get to the end of the story feeling uninspired and sad about the time I wasted in my storytelling. And the very last thing I want is for my uninspiring story to detract from what our pharmacy (our phamily, as we say) works so hard to be for our patients.

But I had a thought. Maybe the why isn’t why you got here…it’s why you stay. And there is nothing I’d be more proud to tell you about than that.

In cliché fashion, it starts with me being a whimsical English major, stuck in an incredibly unfulfilling routine, with an empty tank where my life and heart were concerned and, upon starting a job search, Amber Specialty Pharmacy was first on the list…because A is the first letter of the alphabet. That’s it. My search results were alphabetically organized. The ABCs led me to discover and apply for a care coordinator opening at Amber Specialty Pharmacy.

At the time, I knew nothing about what a specialty pharmacy was versus a retail pharmacy. In fact, I’m pretty sure I researched it and Googled the term like crazy in the days leading up to my interview. I couldn’t define what a chronic illness was and why it needed specialized care and attention. What I knew was that I wasn’t getting anything in terms of “life fuel” from the job I was in. Anything and everything that filled my tank was all the stuff I was doing on the OUTSIDE of my previous jobs.

As a reading tutor in a local public school in 2011, I “filled my tank” by volunteering with the BackPack Program that sent meals home with food insecure kids, I coached 6^th grade girls basketball, I organized a Jeopardy night for Black History Month, I helped with the Urban 4H program for our after school club. (Fact: I may be the only girl in my graduating class from small town Iowa that was NOT involved in 4H growing up. Lucky for me, Urban 4H equals fun chats about how to help plants grow and macaroni art projects.) My tank was full but I was exhausted. I juggled up to five tiny jobs alongside my full-time job to make up for the dismal pay that a non-teaching degree position gets you in public schools. My position was not protected like teachers’ jobs are, so when budgets were reworked for the coming school year, our reading program was cut back drastically.

Enter Hy-Vee. Having been working there part-time while also working at the school, Hy-Vee offered me a full-time opportunity that felt like my first real “adult” job since graduating college and I learned more than I could ever explain during my 2+ years as an assistant manager. But at the end of the day, I knew restocking shelves of flour and sugar at 3 a.m. after a maddening rush of holiday shoppers during a 12-hour shift wasn’t what I wanted to do for 40 years. Tank—empty.

Enter Amber Specialty Pharmacy. I can still tell you quite a bit about my first weeks here—conversations that left an impact, events that shaped what I hoped and knew this job would become. I remember my first conversation with Mike Agostino, our president, which vividly plays in my head about the gift and chance we have to make an impact in our patients’ lives. I remember opportunities other team members gave me to establish myself and grow as a leader in the Customer Care Center.

I remember searching for solutions with members of our executive team one evening while answering phones until 7 p.m. I remember being asked to keep a watchful eye on a young patient and his family because the patient was 2 years old, with a new liver, and mom was in need of a steady connection she could reach out to.

I remember talking to patient Charlotte who was rolling up on her transplant anniversary and about to take a trip to Italy with her daughter. They had promised each other they would take the trip if she survived her initial diagnosis and then the transplant. I remember her calling me back weeks later to tell me about eating the best food she’s ever had, sitting on the greenest hill she’s ever seen and being the happiest and healthiest she’s ever been.

And that did it for me. If I felt these feelings of impact and fulfillment as a care coordinator, having just taken my first steps in the door here at Amber Specialty Pharmacy, there was no place else I wanted to work.

A few months after starting at Amber Specialty Pharmacy, sometime around the Christmas holiday, I was visiting friends and family and they asked me about my new job. And probably because it was the first time I had to actually explain in detail what I did every day and how I felt about it, I got emotional while explaining to them what this job added to my life—how much happier I was in just a few short months and why it already felt like my “forever” job. This is one of those rare, hold-tight-if-you-get-it jobs that can fill your tank, all on its own, every day if you let it.

The good, the bad, the ugly—I would not change a single day I’ve had on my journey here at Amber Specialty Pharmacy over the last 3 years. Every past day has prepared me for today. From placing orders for patients, fielding their questions and absorbing their concerns, to working on the front lines with the Transplant Enrollment team where we support patients, caregivers and nurses through the most critical days leading up to and after patients transplant surgeries.

In my new role on the sales team, I am obsessed with figuring out how to make the people I talk to feel the way I do about our team. I don’t want them to just believe what I’m telling them—I want them to feel it.

Lucky for me, I don’t have to be overly “salesy” with nurses and contacts. I just get to be honest and tell them my story—our story—and find that human connection between what they want for their patients and what I know we can do for their patients.

Why I came to Amber Specialty Pharmacy is not extraordinary but the things that make me want to stay are. Our compassion is extraordinary. Our potential is extraordinary. Our people are extraordinary.

And my tank is full.

About the Author

Martha Peters joined Amber Specialty Pharmacy in 2014 and has held numerous positions within our organization. She is currently an account executive for Amber Specialty Pharmacy’s sister company, Hy-Vee Pharmacy Solutions, where she builds relationships with healthcare providers.

Interested in joining the Amber Specialty Pharmacy team? Check out our career openings.