FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Kaiser Permanente in Fresno is doubling the size of its emergency department. 

“We usually only have two triage rooms, and now we’ve quadrupled our size of triage rooms, which means faster care, more efficient care,” Emergency Room Doctor Enid Picart said. 

Picart said this will make a big difference for patients coming in. With more room, there’s less waiting. 

“In many cases, we have a delay of care because we are waiting for a room to open up for our specialists to then see patients,” Picart said. 

Construction crews worked on the 41,000 square foot expansion to the hospital on North Fresno Street for two years. Now, the capacity of the ER has doubled, going from 20 beds to 40 beds. 

The expansion comes with new specialized cardiac catheterization labs, which doctors like Shazad Jahromi say will make it easier for people in the Central Valley to get diagnosed and treated all in one place. 

“Our patients are going to see seamless care. So in the past, because we didn’t have our own cath lab, we used to send those patients outside and repatriate and bring them back,” Jahromi, the hospital’s Chief of Medical Staff, said.

Doctors say they treat over 160,000 patients at Kaiser Permanente, which is up from 145,000 patients just a few years ago, making this expansion much needed. 

“We’re not going to be cramped in there, patients, hopefully, you know, no patients in a hallway, and also more specialized care, better technology, and more room for our staff and great physicians to do work there,” he said.