Lakeland Hospital breaks ground on new ER expansion project

NILES, Mich. -- Lakeland Hospital, in Niles is getting a much needed facelift. The hospital broke ground Wednesday on a $7 million emergency room expansion project.



The re-modeling plans include tripling the number of rooms from 6 to 18.



The hospital did a massive upgrade in 2004 on everything but the emergency room. This will bring the entire building up to speed.



"Emergency rooms built decades ago were built too small and tended to be not private rooms but multiple patients in rooms. That's not the way we want to take care of our patients,” said Dr. Loren Hamel, M.D., President and CEO of Lakeland Health Care.



The expansion is set to be done next fall.