FOLEY — Construction of the expanded South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley should be complete around the beginning of 2024, Margaret Roley, hospital chief executive officer, said Friday, June 3.

Roley told members of the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber that the project will help meet the growing needs of the region as the population grows.

"We are currently expanding our facility just a little bit, about $250 million," Roley said. "We are going to bring a class organization to a class community that is growing, and we intend to meet those needs."

A hospital statement in 2021 said that the expansion will include the addition of a 133,433-square-foot, four-story patient tower with a new surgical department on the first floor with a new dedicated outpatient entrance. The tower's second and third floors will contain nursing units, including a larger intensive care unit.

The fourth floor will be completed when needed, according to the statement.

Roley said Friday that final plans for the facility should be announced later this year.

"I think probably by the end of the year, we will talk a little more about what will be included," Roley said. "You've probably gone by the hospital and seen the nightmare of construction and parking. That will continue, probably early 2024. That is when we anticipate opening. A lot of time between now and 2024 to talk about that."

She said that while the expansion will add space and new equipment at the hospital, the core of the facility will always be its employees and the services they provide.

"I think we're addressing the bricks and mortar of the needs of the community, but we're only as good as the people that are within the bricks and mortar," Roley said. "We're only as good as our employees, but, most importantly, we're only as good as those physicians that care for you when you come in that door."

She said one example of the employees was Dr. Jordan Chassion, a specialist in electrophysiology, the electrical operations of the heart.

"When people ask me what that means, I put it in laymen's terms," Roley said. "The heart has two components. There are plumbers and there are electricians. Dr. Chassion is the electrician of the heart. Something that we have not had in our facility in the past."

Chassion said that not only is Baldwin County's population growing, but its average age is also increasing. As the population ages, more residents will need services such as those of his department.

"It's growing very rapidly," Chassion said. "It's more than twice as fast as the second fastest growing county in the state and so we need to be prepared for that. We need to be prepared to take care of all these patients, especially patients with cardiac rhythm disorders."

By the time a person reaches the age 40, his or her chances of developing atrial fibrillation, known as A-fib, increases to about 25%, Chassion said. The condition is an irregular heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart and increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and other complications.

"The median age as of 2020 census was 43 years old, so a quarter of those patients potentially at risk for developing A-Fib," Chassion said of the Baldwin County population.

He said diet, sedentary lifestyles and alcohol consumption can also increase the risk of A-Fib.

South Baldwin has been expanding its services in his department to help deal with those risks, he said.

"We've got a massive expansion going on right now that we're very excited about," he said.

About one year ago, the hospital conducted its first procedure to install a micro-pacemaker inside a patient's chest.

The device does not have external connections and has a battery that lasts about 10 years. The patient, a 92-year-old woman, left the hospital the day after her procedure.

"She wasn't a good candidate for a traditional type of pacemaker," Chassion said. "She did great. She walked out of the hospital the next day, with her walker, and every time I see her in the office, she's extremely proud to have been the first. She brings it up with me every time I see her."