Greenhaw Pharmacy owners Eric and Tami Driggers say their recent decision to build a 3,500-square-foot facility is more about a long-held desire to improve service to the community than the arrival of a potential competitor.
?This had been a plan of ours for some time,? Eric Driggers said. ?Honestly, the arrival of the another pharmacy to Hillsboro might have sped up our timeframe a little bit, (but) I have lived in this community for my entire life. We want to be able to continue serving this community as long as we are able.
?This new facility will allow us to have a higher service level than our current location allows.?
The new building will offer a drive-up window with more parking area outside, plus a larger space inside for retail products as well as a consulting room that will provide privacy for clients.
Driggers said they plan to break ground late next month.
?I know there?s always things that can come up and delay it, but we?re hoping for late May with a target date of it being for sure by this fall,? he said.
Driggers said they did a lot of research before moving ahead with the project.
?We talked to a lot of different people in the pharmacy business, and outside of it, and they were saying this was something we should really consider doing,? he said.
?We were waiting for a different financial situation, but it just felt like God?s timing could be now,? he added. ?We started moving forward with it, and it started falling into place really well.
?We took that as affirmation that we should be pursuing this.?
More parking space and a drive-through pick-up window were the two items that were requested most by customers.
?Those are the two main things I hear that we can easily address,? he said.
Customer benefits
Driggers said he believes the community will be pleased with the location: the southwest corner of North Ash Street and Orchard Drive.
?We?ve actually looked at this spot for years,? Driggers said. ?It?s on the corner with easy access for in-town people, but also a corner lot where we can do a drive-through and make it something that can be a center part of our project.?
Driggers said he is looking forward to having more interior space to enhance customer accessibility to the services the business presently offers, plus space to add more.
?The thing we haven?t been able to do very well here are immunizations?flu shots and others,? he said. ?We didn?t have a way to do that (away from public view), and I never really promoted it just because if we couldn?t do it professionally, I didn?t want to do it.?
Driggers said pharmacy nurse Jeanne Rziha will be able to provide more of her services at the pharmacy.
?There?s a lot of things our nurse does and can do that we haven?t been able to do because she?s not here in our facility,? Driggers said. ?We?ll be able to do a lot more education classes with our nurse, so we can promote more of that.
?We already do quite a few things, like diabetic shoes, but we?ll be able to promote it more and have it done right there in the pharmacy.?
Driggers said the new building also will enable the pharmacy to serve the local long-term care facilities better as well.
?We?ll have more room to package (pharmaceuticals).? he said. ?We?ll be able to do what do right now, but we?ll be able to do it better.?
Driggers said the facility could lead to an expansion of staff as well.
?As long as our volume enables it, I can see us adding at least two staff people, one to kind of help cover the register at the drive-through, and another to help with the longterm-care side if it,? he said. ?That would be my longterm goal. I don?t see that happening the day we open.?
Design and build
The design for the new building came in consultation with a fellow pharmacist who was developing a similar project.
?We kind of got together, and he showed me his floor plan,? Driggers said. ?We made some minor changes off of that. He really helped me out because we got a lot further along than if I was starting from scratch.?
At present, Driggers and his father, Darrell Driggers, will take on the general contractor role themselves.
?With his knowledge and what he?s done, and just our relationship with local contractors, I think we can make that work,? Eric Driggers said. ?We want to do as much local as we can.?
