By Hadas Kuznits

MEDIA, Pa. (CBS) -  Riddle Hospital in Media, Pa.  is launching a major expansion project in the emergency department.

“The emergency department is a project that we’ve been working on for about 4 or 5 years now,” hospital president Gary Perecko said. “We did just complete phase 1 which is a Rapid Evaluation Unit, about $1.5 million and this is the completion of phase 2 that we’re launching which will be about a $16 million renovation of our emergency department.”

He says the expansion will improve service.

“We see right now about 33,000 visits a year; with the new facility we’ll be able to accommodate about 44,000 to 45,000 patient visits a year.”

It’s scheduled to be completed in about two years.