ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) – Saint Louis University Hospital plans to expand its emergency department to accommodate a growing volume of patients.

The 1.5 million dollar expansion of the region’s busiest trauma center will begin in February.

“We’ve been growing by over six percent every year so our capacity has just overwhelmed us in the space that we currently have,” said Director of Emergency Medicine at Saint Louis University Hospital, Dr. Laurie Byrne.

Byrne says the expansion will add an additional five beds to the department.

“There will be more privacy in these rooms compared to how the existing ED (Emergency Department) is laid out, which will be very nice for our patients and their families.”

Byrne says with fewer emergency rooms in the city of St. Louis, and more people without insurance, they’ve seen added patient volume — climbing by more than ten thousand patients over the past decade to just over 39-thousand last year.