A groundbreaking ceremony was held today for the expansion of the Emergency Department at The Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu campus.

Once completed, the new three-story building will more than triple the size of its current layout, according to a news release.

“We have projected that the demand for health care services in West Oahu will rise by about 5% each year,” said Jason Chang, Queen’s president and CEO in a news release. “We need to keep pace with the expected growth of the central and west Oahu communities that we serve. We remain committed to the mission of our founders, Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, of providing in perpetuity, quality health care services to improve the health and wellbeing of Native Hawaiians and all the people of Hawaii, and this new facility will help us achieve that.”

The expansion will increase the number of treatment rooms in the emergency department from 23 to 55; add 48 more patient rooms to the facility’s second and third floors, bringing the total to 152; and implement negative pressure technologies such as Airborne Infection Isolation Rooms to ensure patient and caregiver safety.

The Queen’s West Emergency Department is currently the second busiest in the state, the news release said, and treated more than 62,000 patients last year.

The new facility is expected to be done in November 2026, officials said, while the entire expansion and renovation project is expected to be done by summer 2027.