Chaney's Provides Cutting-Edge Service With Time-Honored Compassion

Hometown pharmacies aren’t as popular as they once were, having surrendered a lot of their foothold on the market to the larger retail chains.
But in Oxford there is a family-owned drug store that remains on top and continues to serve its customers while balancing on the cutting edge of today’s pharmaceutical world.
Chaney’s Pharmacy, 501 Bramlett Blvd. and its owners, Brent and Laura Smith, believe in putting customers first and has been around for decades proving that fact.
“When my husband, Brent, graduated from pharmacy school in 1975, he started managing the Chaney’s that was here in Oxford then,” Laura Smith said. “He grew up in Greenwood working for Jimmy Hogue, who owned all the Chaney’s Pharmacies; it was a small independent chain.”
The store used to be in Eastgate Shopping Center and was called then, Eastgate Pharmacy. Hogue bought it and changed the name to Chaney’s. The rest is history. Laura said her husband managed the store for five years. After Mr. Hogue died in 1980, the Smith’s had the opportunity to buy the store, which they did.

“We got married, I graduated from pharmacy school and we bought Chaney’s,” Laura said. “All in May, 1980. In 1991, we were able to buy the land and the building from the city where we’re at now.”
Brent Smith said they continue to serve their customers first always with pharmacy deliveries, if needed. Also the store features a large front-end, a diversified gift section, a TCBY yogurt shop, “Ugly Mug” coffee and a spa area, complete with a stylist.
“With the pharmacy, Brent always tries to stay on the cutting edge of whatever is up and coming,” Laura said, “We actually have a Parata machine, which is a robot. It can fill a lot of prescriptions in an hour. We compound specialty prescriptions, offer vaccines such as flu, shingles and pneumonia varieties. A lot goes on in the pharmacy.”

Laura and her husband are both pharmacists. Along with Jane Cross, another pharmacist specializing in clinical pharmacy, they implement the medication therapy management program at Chaney’s.
Brent Smith said Cross has helped Chaney’s improve their clinical services while helping the store educate and empower patients.
“Jane is new to us,” he said, “and her specialty is clinical pharmacy. She works closely with patients who are often taking multiple medications, especially the elderly who may have pillboxes or cups. Jane makes sure these patients aren’t duplicating medications from certain disease states. Whether it’s diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure or any other clinical condition, our goal is to ensure  patients don’t take something that is incompatible with their disease state. We help them synchronize our patients’ pharmaceutical needs so they can fill their prescriptions in a convenient manner without making multiple trips to the pharmacy.”

 Story and photos by Angela Rogalski. Angela is a HottyToddy.com contributor