Baptist Health System is spending $18 million on improvements at St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital. The nearly 6,000-square-foot expansion will include the build-out of new emergency department space that will accommodate nearly a dozen more beds, including eight additional medical-surgical beds.

The project will double the number of EMS bays from two to four. Baptist Health System acquired the hospital in 1994. It’s known to have one of the busiest emergency departments in the city.

The hospital is known to have one of the busiest emergency departments in the city. It sees some 1,600 emergency patients per month, and that figure will likely continue to grow as the demand for care escalates.

The additional rooms at Baptist Health will help offset the reduction in rooms that occurred when Christus Health closed its medical center hospital in late April.

Work on the project is expected to begin before the end of the month and is slated to be completed by May 2026.