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Hutchinson Regional Medical Center announced a 5-million dollar expansion of the hospitals emergency care facilities in a news conference Thursday morning.

Hospital President Kevin Miller says the current facility is outdated, and doesn’t reflect the true appearance or operations of the hospital. Construction will include two phases of work, plus utilizing available care rooms in other areas, to keep the emergency services up and running.

Half of the project will be paid for out of the hospitals foundation, with the other half coming from the hospitals own resources. Miller wanted to stress that no additional debt will be placed on the Hutchinson Regional Health Care System.

The plan is to use a portion of the ambulance bay to expand the number of care rooms from 10 to 20, and another trauma room. It will also use some office space to expand the area further. Under the new configuration ambulances will still use a portion of the garage but will now back up to the doors of the new facility.

Bids are expected to go out this spring with work to begin soon after. Construction is expected to take between 12 and 15 months.