Phoebe vs. COVID: Pharmacy staff among unsung heroes

ALBANY — This, in a nutshell, was the problem for Phoebe North Pharmacy Manager Julia Erdmier and her staff in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was nerve-wracking at first because everything was so new,” Erdmeir said as she recalled the early days of the pandemic. “It was the ultimate learning process: Trying to figure out how to treat symptoms of a disease without knowing anything about it.”

While the Phoebe Putney Health System administrators, doctors, nurses and other staff who worked directly with patients during the roughly two years of COVID-19 and its variants have been rightly hailed as heroes as the community and, indeed, the state, nation and world at large have battled the often deadly virus, it was unsung heroes like Erdmier and the pharmacy staff who played a major role in moving the needle toward what is now a cautiously optimistic return to a level of normalcy.

“There are so many people in our Phoebe Family who were vital to our stand against COVID,” Phoebe Health System President and CEO Scott Steiner said. “The folks in our pharmacy were certainly a big part of that. They were the ones who were instrumental in managing our treatment programs and in setting up our vaccine program.

“Sometimes in a critical situation like the one we faced with COVID, it’s easy to forget the important roles that members of the staff carried out. But Phoebe could not have reached the point where we are today without every member of our team doing their job. It’s important that we not overlook the efforts of people like Julia and members of our pharmacy staff.”

For Erdmier, the unknown that surrounded the early stages of COVID left an indelible mark.

“There were different people working every day to find something — anything — that would help our patients,” she said. “We had people working on finding the latest information across the country, and we all stood together, trying to help each other figure out how to help.

“We’d hear something might work, so we’d try it, only to find out a lot of the time that what we tried did not work. Then we’d hear something else and switch to that. Like I said, it was nerve-wracking.”

With current COVID numbers at pandemic-era lows, Erdmier, like others at the regional health care hub, is cautiously optimistic as she discusses the positive impact the Phoebe staff has had on the health of southwest Georgia, which in the early stages was the No. 3-worst site for COVID in the world.

“It wasn’t easy, and when you’re going through it and see so much suffering day-to-day, it starts to seem that this is never going to end,” she said. “But with the work of this hospital staff — every single day — and the help of the governor and other state officials, we finally started seeing things change. That was an amazing feeling, to see things get better gradually over the weeks.

“For me personally, this was definitely an eye-opening experience. It was a lot to take on, and we saw a lot of change in a relatively short time. I’m proud of the way we all rallied together, proud of what we accomplished. As I look back over all this now, I think all of us — the Phoebe Family and the community — are all stronger for going through it.”

Special Photo: PhoebeSpecial Photo: Phoebe

Special Photo: Phoebe