Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 6, Issue 11, November 2002

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'Medicine Ladies' keep spirit of mom & pop pharmacies alive

By LEAH WEATHERSBY

If you patronize neighborhood pharmacies, you may well have gone to a business owned by either one or both of the "Medicine Ladies" Holly Whitcomb Henry and Donna Docktor.

Together the two run four pharmacies in Seattle, including View Ridge Pharmacy, located at 7501 35th Ave. NE in Wedgwood, Sand Point Clinic Pharmacy, located at 4575 Sand Point Way NE, Northaven Pharmacy, located at 531 NE 112th in the Northgate area, and The Pharmacy at the Mount in West Seattle.

In addition, Whitcomb Henry and her husband, Mike Henry, also a pharmacist, bought Briggs Pharmacy, located at 2201 N. 56th St. in the Meridian neighborhood, this past June.

Both Whitcomb Henry and Docktor became businesswomen for partly idealistic reasons.

The two met in the early 1980s while serving together on a committee of the Washington State Pharmacy Association. One day, Docktor commented that she wanted to try running her own business. As it turned out, Whitcomb Henry had the same dream. A partnership was formed and the two purchased View Ridge Pharmacy in 1986.

Whitcomb Henry and Docktor decided to rename their business "Medicine Ladies" in 1991 when they bought their second pharmacy together, Sand Point Clinic Pharmacy.

Prior to that time, their business had been known as View Ridge Pharmacy Inc. the name of their first store.

The new name was inspired by a customer who used to say, "I'm here to see the medicine ladies" whenever he came in.

Docktor, who says she hears all the time that her name is perfect for the medical profession, had spent the first part of her career in public health agencies. She worked first at the Seattle Indian Health Board, a federally funded clinic, and then at the King County Department of Public Health.

In some ways, the life of a pharmacist in the public sector is easier, Docktor said. Clinics have public funding, and free samples to give out to patients in need. If the pharmacist has any questions about a prescription, the doctor is often right down the hall.

"When you work in those situations other pharmacists will say you don't work in the real world," Docktor said.

She set out to prove them wrong. Docktor wanted to show that she could run a business but still be an advocate for her patients. These days, she puts this philosophy into practice by steering customers away from highly marketed drugs if they are too expensive or inappropriate the specific ailment.

"I just sit and laugh sometimes when I watch an ad (for a prescription drug). They don't lie but they don't give people enough information to...use the product, " Docktor said. "Sometimes I just think we need to go the extra mile when patients can't afford it."

Whitcomb Henry agreed that pharmacists must be advocates, partly in order to avoid wasting costly medications through misuse, which she said happens to the tune of $1 billion a year.

Whitcomb Henry became interested in becoming a pharmacist after working as a clear at a Pay 'N' Save drug store in Spokane, where she grew up. It was her first-ever job.

After graduating from the pharmacy program at Washington State University, she moved to Seattle and continued working for the Pay 'N' Save chain, however, as someone who comes from a family of entrepreneurs, she dreamed of eventually owning her own business.

Whitcomb Henry said she believes so strongly in the value of neighborhood pharmacies that she waited to buy her home (in the View Ridge neighborhood) until she bought her business, so she could be a true local.

Often, patrons will tell pharmacists things they won't tell their doctor, Whitcomb Henry says. She believes that may be because patients hold physicians in awe, whereas they see the pharmacist as their neighbor.

"I often liken pharmacy to bartending," Whitcomb Henry jokes. "You're in a neighborhood location, you're dispensing drugs, and you're taking to people about their problems."

As a businesswoman, Whitcomb Henry also believes small pharmacies must develop niches to compete against chains and mail-order drug sellers. Some of the special services she and Docktor have implemented include compliance packaging, a method of organizing daily doses for patients who must take multiple drugs, and

compounding assembling capsules, liquids and ointments at the pharmacy to make medicines easier for patients to take.

"Most chains don't compound," said Whitcomb Henry. "They're usually a pretty good referral service for us."

The Medicine Ladies may not be together forever. Docktor, 53, is looking forward to semi-retirement, while Whitcomb Henry, 47, is poised to become the second woman president in the 100-year history of the National Community Pharmacy Association (NCPA). Like her fellow NCPA members, Whitcomb Henry said she's dedicated to preserving neighborhood pharmacies. That played a big part in the Henrys' decision to buy Briggs Pharmacy from long-time owners Bill and Marilyn Briggs.

The Briggs, both now in their mid-70s, purchased the Meridian neighborhood pharmacy in 1956 with a then-partner. A year later they became the sole owners.

Although the Briggs have three children who are all pharmacists, none were prepared to take over the family business.

Fearing they might have to sell their prescription lists and stock to a large chain, Bill Briggs called Whitcomb Henry to see if she knew of any potential buyers. He was ecstatic when he learned the Whitcomb Henry and her husband were interested in buying Briggs Pharmacy. Not only will the business stay open, he said, but the drug store's longtime employees Mollie Johnson (who has worked at Briggs for 38 years) and Linda Williams (a 10-year employee) will stay on. The Briggs' daughter Karen also works at the pharmacy.

"(The community has) been so loyal through all the years," Bill Briggs said. "It's a bond that's difficult to explain but easy to feel."