RALEIGH, N.C. — Warrenton is a place where everyone knows your name. At Futrell Pharmacy, Dr. Woody King knows all the people.

What You Need To Know

  • Rural pharmacists perform multiple roles

  • Dr. Woody King has been a pharmacist for 40 years

  • Customers have fewer locations to choose from to receive a vaccination in small towns

  • By offering vaccines at his pharmacy, King saves his customers from making an hour long drive to Raleigh

The pharmacist says, “That’s the name of the game. I have been in this business for 40 years so I am treating third and fourth generation customers now.”

For better or worse, it’s what this small town pharmacist is used to.

“I have dealt with the grandparents, and the parents, and the children, and now their children,” King says.

He’s seen a lot of changes over the years.

King says, “It still boils down to customer service.”

People trust him as much as the pastors they listen to on Sunday mornings.

King says, “Because if they hold me in high enough regard to ask my opinion about things, I take that very seriously.”

During the pandemic the reliance on his medical guidance and health advice as a rural pharmacist from his customers has increased exponentially.

“When you dispense medications in a bottle, pills, tablets, capsules, and liquids, they are going home and taking them,” he says.

This period in time is different for many who seek his opinions because he’s answering questions about giving immunizations against COVID-19. He says it’s a heartwarming feeling.

“I am putting the drug into their body. It’s rewarding. You feel like you are actually helping them prevent contracting a disease or a hospitalization or you know even worse,” says the pharmacist.

Customers call or walk into the pharmacy to schedule an appointment for a vaccination. Oftentimes, they ask him what is in these vaccines and how they will when the shot is injected inside their bodies.

It’s a level of intimacy he embraces because he has to talk and walk each person through the process.

“That puts the independent pharmacy, like us, out there I think above some of the box stores. We’ve got enough time to give that personal touch that maybe you don’t get in a box store situation,” King explains.

He’s good as gold to everyone who walks through the front door of his pharmacy because kindness and patience are some of his virtues.

The doctor explains meeting health care needs are at the heart of pharmacy. Without an opportunity to receive the COVID-19 vaccine inside his store, many people would have to make the hour long drive to Raleigh at another clinic.

Woody, as customers call him, is frankly irreplaceable to these familiar faces he serves in Warren County.

“That rapport between patient and customer is the highlight, or one of the highlights, of independent pharmacy because you do build those relationships over the years,” King says.