Carol Hemersbach, CPhT, BSHCA

About Carol

Hi, my name is Carol Hemersbach and I have been a pharmacy tech since the typewriter days, yes, that gives away my age.  I started as a volunteer with the Red Cross when I was 13 years old at the local base hospital pharmacy.  We had an assembly line, starting with the typing of the label, then would pass over to the fillers, and then there was someone handing out the prescriptions.  On a busy day, we filled over 1000 prescriptions.  I then went to a couple of retail pharmacies, where I was fortunate enough to have met Paul McCartney, that was so amazing, such a nice guy.  My next venture out was in to the hospital pharmacy where I started as a clerk then worked up to technician (certification was not a requirement at that time) and then started working in Admix.  We did not have a chemo hood, so we actually mixed chemo on the countertops as it was safer for the mixer (I can hear the gasps now).

I then moved out of state from Arizona to South Carolina where I was recruited to a Home Infusion company to do mixing and run the company.  We also contracted with a local oncology office to do their chemotherapy admixtures, which is where I realized my love of Oncology.   I moved back to Arizona and was hired on to a large oncology office to mix chemo and was given the extra duty of taking care of all the Prior auths and financial assistance for all oral oncolytics.  We then opened up our own MID and was excited to be chosen to take care of our patients in a new way.  I also obtained my bachelor’s in health care administration in 2018. I then moved to a new company where I was asked to initiate the MID program from the ground up and opened our first store in September 2020, since then opening up two other sites.   I am currently the Supervisor for our MID.

I have also taken up a love of powerlifting and currently hold the state record for my age/weight class in deadlifts. I will be competing nationally in July in Vegas.

NCODA has been a huge part of my career and I am so grateful to be part of such an amazing organization that truly cares about patients.   I have learned so much from others and NCODA has helped shape me and provide me with the knowledge needed to run the MID successfully, but more importantly, take care of cancer patients with compassion and empathy.  OPTA is an amazing opportunity for growth as a technician within the oncology field.  With so many members, there is just so much knowledge for us to learn from each other and bounce off one another so that we, as oncology pharmacy techs, can further provide the highest quality of care to our patients.