Greenhaw Pharmacy celebrates 50 years of business years ago
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Going from soda fountains to computerized databases, the Greenhaw Pharmacy certainly has changed since its early days in Canton.
On Monday, the Greenhaw Pharmacy, now located at 508 Ash in Hillsboro, celebrated 50 years of business.
Though it's now located at the Preferred Medical Associates building, Greenhaw Pharmacy had its beginnings in downtown Canton.
Greenhaw got interested in becoming a pharmacist after working in a Canton drugstore while in junior and senior high school, he said.
After graduation, he headed off for pharmacy school, and two years later was back in town to start his own business. It opened on July 1, 1952.
The original pharmacy building wasn't just a place to dispense medications — it was also a community gathering place, complete with a soda fountain, Greenhaw said. The older folks in town would take their coffee breaks there.
Lou Greenhaw, Don's daughter-in-law and the current owner of the pharmacy, said that her husband, Steve, and his brother, Dennis, used to work in the pharmacy as youngsters. And when it was their turn to operate the soda fountain, they'd sometimes "accidentally" mix up the wrong shakes and drinks so they could eat the results.
In 1969, Canton's lone doctor passed away, leaving Greenhaw with no local doctor to dispense medications for.
And he didn't want his pharmacy to serve just as the local general store.
"I didn't go through pharmacy school to run a sundries store," Greenhaw said.
That's when he was contacted by representatives from the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce, who invited him to move the pharmacy to their town.
Hillsboro was the perfect location for a pharmacy — five doctors, but no drugstore. Greenhaw moved into his new location on Main Street that year. His business was just south of Baker Brothers Printing, where the Chinese Buffet now sits, he said.
In 1983, Greenhaw was invited to move the pharmacy into a new doctor's clinic on Ash Street, now known as the PMA clinic. And they've been there ever since.
Don Greenhaw continued to run the pharmacy until 1993, when his daughter-in-law, Lou Greenhaw, bought the business.
And Don has nothing but praise for the job she's done with the pharmacy.
"She's done a very good job," he said.
Under Lou Greenhaw's leadership, the pharmacy has been remodeled twice: first, the front glass wall was extended to form today's waiting area, and second, two sit-down cubicles were added to increase patient-pharmacist interaction.
That addition earned Greenhaw Pharmacy an "Innovative Pharmacy Practice" award, given by the Kansas Pharmacy Association.
"We wanted people to talk more about their medicine," Greenhaw said. "We were amazed — everybody had questions."
Greenhaw would love to remodel again if she could.
"I'd love to have twice as much space," she said.
In her years at the pharmacy, Greenhaw has seen quite a few changes. More customers are using insurance to pay for medications instead of cash. And that's probably a good thing, because drug prices have skyrocketed, she said.
Greenhaw also realizes that new technologies have changed the way pharmacists do things. Once, all bottle labels were typed by hand in a typewriter — now, the computer spits then out.
She's also seen her pharmacy not just dispense drugs, but also triage patients. Some people come directly to the pharmacy with an illness or wound, and pharmacy technicians can refer them to a doctor or even the emergency room if the condition is serious, Greenhaw said.
"Pharmacy care is a lot easier to do in a small town," Greenhaw said. "You know people — know a lot about their lives."
But in the next decade, Greenhaw will end her family's involvement with the pharmacy, as pharmacist Gina Edwards buys out the business. The plan is for Edwards to take control in seven years, Greenhaw said.
After leaving the pharmacy business, Greenhaw's current plans are to move to the state of Washington once her husband retires from the airline industry. The couple would like to get involved in church planting, she said.
Although she won't miss the stress once her pharmacy days are done, she will miss the people, Greenhaw said.
