A Central Coast hospital has completed a major expansion of its emergency room, nearly doubling its size in response to a spike in demand for services over the years.
Arroyo Grande Community Hospital added 5,000 square feet to it Emergency Department. It went from having 11 semi-private and bed ward rooms to 20 private treatment rooms. More state of the art diagnostic equipment was added, and the waiting room was expanded.
Hospital officials say the original emergency room area built in 1990 was designed to handle about 15,000 patients annually, but demand has almost doubled in the last 30 years. The $7.6 million dollar expansion project took about four years to complete.