Ever picked

up a new set of contact lenses without leaving your car?

Now you can,

thanks to the new drive-though window service being offered by Dr. David

Johnson at his Eye Care Plus location in Peachtree City.

If the idea

of an eye doctor with a drive-through window makes you laugh, you're not

alone. Johnson said he laughed when he first heard it from a Jacksonville

doctor who spoke at a seminar Johnson attended.

But when the

Jacksonville doctor pointed out that about 30 percent of his walk-in business

comes from people who are only there to pay a bill or pick up contacts,

it made sense. "I checked, and the percentage is about the same at

my office," said Johnson.

But Johnson,

who shares a building with a Huddle House restaurant on Ga. Highway 54

East, only recently had an opportunity to try this revolutionary new service.

A local pizza restaurant on the other side of his office ceased operations,

and he leased that portion of the building so he could expand his office.

Adding about

800 square feet, his office now extends to the side of the building, where

a walk-in glass door was positioned similar to what might be found at

a dry cleaner. During the recent renovations to the office itself, which

took about five weeks, the bottom half of the door was bricked in to make

a window with a tray for drive-through customers to access.

"We shut

down for about three weeks and saw no patients at all," Johnson said

of the renovation period, adding that for about two weeks after that,

he saw patients who were very understanding of the construction process

and came in through the back of the building.

Johnson, who

has been practicing in Peachtree City since 1989, thinks that this is

an idea that will catch on in other locations.

"It's

great for moms who don't want to have to get their kids out of the car,

and for people who come when it's raining," he said.