THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060198
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
BENNETT'S CREEK PHARMACY, a staple in the northern part of the city for the past 10 years - and owned by Suffolk's mayor - is moving to a new, larger building just down the street.
Steven Christopher Jones - 36-year-old pharmacist as well as second-term mayor who usually goes by Chris - had rented his old space at 2897-B Bridge Road.
``We outgrew that building about three years ago,'' he said recently.
The new facility, at 3219 Bridge Road, next door to Food Lion, will be four times the size of the old one and represents an investment of nearly $500,000, Jones said.
He has followed in his father's footsteps. Robert S. Jones opened his pharmacy in the city's Chuckatuck section Jan. 16, 1961. His son will have the grand opening of his new store 34 years later: Jan. 16, 1995.
``I told Dad I was going to open Jan. 9. He told me he had opened on Jan. 16. I said, `Well, I guess I can wait another week.'
``I always admired my dad. I grew up with pharmacy. He has good people skills. So when I went to school, I went to pharmacy school. It certainly has been a very rewarding profession, because I enjoy people.''
He also has followed his father's lead by making himself available to his customers 24 hours a day: The Joneses will wake from a sound sleep to fill emergency prescriptions any time they are asked.
Jones graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1982 and worked as a pharmacist for others for a few years before renting a portion of a building on the heavily traveled U.S. 17 between the James River Bridge and Churchland and running his own operation.
He opened his 800-square-foot drug store June 24, 1985, a day after his 26th birthday.
He and his wife, Karen, and their 3-year-old daughter, Kaitlin, live in Cedar Point.
Jones' new store has several novel features, one of them a drive-through prescription window.
``My wife's idea,'' Jones said - good for people in a hurry, or people for whom it would be difficult to walk into the pharmacy.
At the front of the store, customers can use a mail-type slot to drop off prescriptions after hours.
Jones will have room in the new store for a gift and card section, fixtures of his father's store for years, and a medical equipment section for selling and renting home health care equipment such as walkers, wheelchairs, canes, crutches and beds.
Also, as health care shifts from hospital to home recovery, pharmacists are becoming a stronger part of the health-care team by providing testing and counseling to customers, Jones said.
``We will have a private cubicle where I can discuss people's medicine with them. We will be involved in compliance, more than just dispensing medicine.''
And customers can have their blood pressure checked.
``We want to know if they are taking their blood pressure medicine or not,'' Jones said. ``Or if they need to get a prescription for another kind'' of medication.
Jones also will offer a care service that goes beyond first aid: For example, customers will be able to get information on post-operation dressings to care for themselves at home after surgery.
Also part of the new pharmacy's service: mixing and dispensing intravenous solutions for nourishment and chemotherapy. ``A nurse would call in the prescription,'' Jones said, ``and the IV would be picked up.''
Delivery, he added, is still part of the service.
Hours will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. The store is closed Sundays - but Jones says he's always available.
``My dad's always done it. When my customers need it, they call me.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN R. SHEALLY II
Suffolk Mayor Chris Jones and his wife, Karen, visit their new
pharmacy, at 3219 Bridge Road. It will be four times the size of the
old one, at 2897-B Bridge Road.
by CNB