Eric: Manager, Mail Pharmacy

When Eric Chelena graduated from college with his pharmacy degree, he just assumed he would work behind a store pharmacy counter. But when he discovered the world of mail order pharmacy he said that is when he saw a real “door opening.”

Chelena walked through that door and now, as a Manager of Mail Pharmacy Operations with CVS Caremark, he is on the front lines of the company’s efforts to reinvent pharmacy. And as he has discovered, that reinvention is vast and powered by cutting-edge innovations that he says have resulted in him loving what he does.

“In leading the development of our Virtual Pharmacy initiative, I was part of a team that sped up delivery of mail prescriptions by dispensing and shipping from the location closest to the customer,” said Chelena. “Our customers don’t always think about where their medicines are shipped from – that’s our job. But they are keenly aware of how long it takes from when they send us the order form to when they get their medicine back in the mail, and they worry about medication interruptions.”

Of course, with colleagues like Chelena they really don’t have much reason to worry. After all, he is part of CVS Caremark team that dispensed 48 million prescriptions through the mail in 2010 and, in the same year, received a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating.

“In my job, personally, I can honestly say I never have a boring day at work,” added Chelena. “It’s always changing, there is always something new coming out and I thoroughly enjoy coming to work every day.”