Cullman Regional unveiled the first portion of a planned expansion — a newly renovated emergency room — on Tuesday morning.

Rising population growth in north and central Alabama has resulted in the hospital’s ER to operate over capacity for the last several years, leading hospital leadership to make an effort to get ahead of that growth.

“As you all know in the healthcare environment we’re in today, these surges and waves of sickness that run through our communities…we need the right facilities to take care of that,” said Cullman Regional CEO James Clements.

The 9.5 million expansion will add 6,021 square feet — increasing capacity by 80% — allowing staff to provide care more effectively to patients as annual visits continue to rise.

“The last few years have been exceptionally difficult as emergency rooms across the country found themselves at the front lines of a Covid pandemic hit globally worldwide. We were no different,” said Chief Nursing Officer Charna Brown “But we have been very grateful and thankful for the leadership that provided us with exceptional modern technology and upgraded facilities such as this, so that we can better care for our patients.”

The expansion will include 17 new treatment rooms, three new trauma rooms, a dedicated behavioral health patient care area and a larger, more modern waiting area.

“For patients and their families, there can be so much anxiety when coming to the ER. We want to do everything we can to make the patient experience better and this new facility helps us achieve that goal,” Brown said in a release to The Times.

A four-story tower addition is currently under way that will double the size of the hospital’s critical care unit and add more beds to the medical surgery unit. That project is scheduled to be completed next year.