Dudi Wittwer, left, manager of Rehab Services, talks about the new physical therapy center at Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay. Occupational therapist Teresa Murrell, center, and Barbie Haines, a physical therapist, will work in the new area. - World Photo Alex Powers

The culmination of a year’s worth of work to plan future development at Bay Area Hospital has set the stage for further action.

In March, Bay Area Health District board members will begin formulating a 10-year strategic plan for possible additions to be made to the Coos Bay facility.

Dan Smith, CEO of the hospital, said board members will consider a collaborative report done a year ago by KMD Architects, a San Francisco-based firm that worked on the original plans for the hospital; and ECG Management Consultants. The cost for the report was about $100,000, Smith said.

Board members also will take into account the results of more than two dozen community interviews — with school superintendents, business leaders, economic development and Bay Area Chamber of Commerce officials and area mayors — that took place last year.

“This is a community hospital, and we want to be very aware of that,” Smith said.

The board will consider improvements that include expansion of the Surgical Services Department’s diagnostic and therapy areas. Other additions could include a major construction project of a wing that will house more hospital patient rooms.

“We also, at some point, will build a new patient bed tower,” Smith said. “When we do that, we will be making significantly more private rooms.”

He said the board is preparing for a growing population in the Bay Area.

“Everybody recognizes that this area is going to grow economically,” he said.

The hospital already has begun to take on a new look, with the addition of a 5,000-square-foot Rehab Services Department and storage area, which was completed this past November at a cost of $1.5 million.

In addition, a $350,000 renovation project to improve the efficiency in the triage area began in late November, scheduled to be finished by February. Construction includes tearing down and moving of walls to create new areas, with the end result being less time between a patient signing in and being seen by an emergency physician.

“We used to have a single area. Now we’re going to have two triage areas,” Smith said.

He said that the registration process will speed up even more, and will be made more comfortable, through a new system that will register a patient at bedside.

After the triage area is completed, the hospital may add a new nurse practitioner position, Smith said.

The last time the 206,000-square-foot hospital, which opened in 1973, was renovated was seven years ago, when surgery, radiology and emergency department expansions were added, he said.