Concord Hospital plans expansion

Concord Hospital has unveiled plans for a $40 million expansion of its emergency room, intensive care unit and operating facilities.

Plans call for the project to be complete by the fall of 2007.

The hospital wants to build a two-story addition in what is now the emergency room parking lot to add space to the emergency room and the intensive care unit above it. The addition would nearly double the size of the emergency room and increase the capacity of the intensive care unit from 16 to 20 beds.

A second addition behind the hospital would create a new central sterile supply area on the ground floor, where medical instruments would be prepared for use. It would also add four rooms to the operating facilities on the second floor.

The hospital is still working on the design for the two additions, and both state regulators and the Concord Planning Board will need to sign off on the plans before it can start building, the Concord Monitor reported.