ELLSWORTH – Maine Coast Memorial Hospital is getting some well-needed treatment.

The Ellsworth Planning Board unanimously approved a $9.9 million expansion for the hospital Wednesday night.

“It will certainly help the citizens of the county,” said planning board chairman John Fink. The hospital “will have a better emergency department to treat them with.”

The 24,000-square-foot addition will expand the hospital’s emergency division and add a new helicopter pad.

Construction is expected to start in October and be completed in 2010.

“We are just trying to keep up with growth,” said Doug Jones, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer.

Jones said space has been so tight that several supplies and an EKG machine are unable to be stored in the emergency area.

“The emergency facility has been operating nearly 50 percent beyond capacity,” Jones said. “We have enough room [in our emergency department] to manage 12,000 visits a year, but have been receiving 18,000 visits a year.”

The expansion will allow enough space for the hospital to handle 22,000 visits a year, he said.

“For us it’s a question of how quickly we can get patients in and out of the hospital. This expansion will help bring that time down,” Jones said.

The hospital’s emergency area now is 2,500 square feet, with six rooms and eight beds. The expansion will add 13,000 square feet and 15 beds.

“We are in a rapidly growing community,” said hospital spokesman Donald Baril. “If we are full now, imagine in three or four years what those numbers will look like.”

The new helipad will allow faster service for LifeFlight victims.

“Currently the helicopter has to land at the high school or in a nearby field, and then the patient is taken by ambulance to the hospital,” Jones said. “This way there will be less loading and unloading.”

The hospital is paying for the helipad through a $100,000 bond from the state.

Jones said the hospital is using tax-exempt bonds from the Maine Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority to fund $5,922,000 of the project.

The hospital is looking to raise another $5,900,000 for the project through a capital campaign.

According to Jones, the extra money not used in the expansion will be applied to storm water retention pools and an expanded parking lot to accommodate the larger facility.

“We are in the quiet phase right now but the campaign is going well,” he said. “We’ve had some very generous donors step forward.”