ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Site work is underway on recent medical expansions for the Strong Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department.

The University of Rochester received federal funding of $1 million to expand its space and serve the health care needs of the community.

“We're using every square inch everywhere that we can throughout the hospital,” the chair of URMC emergency medicine, Dr. Michael Kamali, said. “Oftentimes that involves hallways or space that haven't been originally planned for patients. What we want to do is take care of anyone and everyone who walks in our doors. We want to provide them the health care that they need.”

They are reconstructing the facility from the ground up.

“We're in a 1926 structure,” assistant project manager at URMC Robert Maloney said. “This is the original staff house for the hospital. And, you know, all kinds of work is going on throughout this from abatement to just selective demolition and what have you. [We are] making sure that we've separated ourselves from our hospital safely and securely.”

The hospital is utilizing existing structures and its supporting areas to double the size of the current emergency department.

“Our current project will be improved by the space that's required to provide proper, adequate care,” the director of special projects at URMC, Evangelos Yannas, said. “While it'd be nice to preserve existing structures, we realized that the best way forward would be to just remove really what's not useful to us anymore, which is more of our support areas because it is those support functions that keep our operations going.”

The expansion project is being divided into several phases.

“There will be a presence of a construction crew on site through 2027 as projects are broken down into phases,” Yannas said. “The first major phase, which is a nine-story building with the first half of the EDI, is to open up in 25. And then the second phase, which is the renovation of the existing EDI, which would be a full gut renovation that would open up in 2026, slash 2027.”

Those at URMC anticipate that the new designs will not only provide larger spaces as they meet maximum capacity but also invest in more advanced technology and resources.

“That new technology in terms of imaging, in terms of care pathways, in terms of space that is better adapted for patients, both trauma and critical care,” Kamali said. “It allows us to do a lot of different things in a lot of different spaces.”

Hospital leaders are looking forward to better equipping the facility and contributing to the growth and support of the health care system.

“What are things going to look like 25 years from now,” Kamali said. “And do we have the footprint that can accommodate that? We think we are accomplishing that. So time will tell. But we're very, very excited to see the construction shown and to have things moving along.”