FAYETTE — Jefferson County Hospital has plans to nearly double its size.

The 30-bed hospital had preliminary plans drawn up by Waycaster and Associates to add 20 more acute care beds.

Also included in the plans are a new X-Ray room, emergency room, dining area, fitness and wellness center and lobby.

Architect Johnny Waycaster presented the plans to the hospital’s board of trustees Wednesday night.

He said, not only are the new additions going to take care of the needs of patients, but it’s giving the hospital a makeover, too.

“It gave us an opportunity to essentially rebuild the hospital,” Waycaster said.

The front of the building will have a new covered drive-through drop-off area, something that Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dudley Guice is excited about.

“I think it’s going to be a beautiful entrance. It’s going to be a grand entrance,” Guice said.

The rear of the building will be transformed into the emergency room area, with a drop-off area and a waiting area.

Of the 20 new rooms, 16 will be private and the remaining four will be semi-private. The private rooms will be separated from the semi-private rooms by a nurses’ station.

The total square feet of the addition is 15,422. When adding that with the approximate 26,000 square feet, the entire facility will be approximately 42,000 square feet, Guice said.

And there will be space vacated from the existing building, like the current X-Ray room, cafeteria, emergency room, conference room, dietary and lab.

Waycaster suggested transforming the current conference room into an admitting area, turn the dietary space into the conference room and move medical records and business offices into the existing dining area.

“That leaves four other spaces to grow into creatively,” he said.

Having extra space to utilize is a commodity, Waycaster said.

The estimated cost of the addition is $5 million at this point, but until the concrete plans are drawn up, that remains only an estimate.

Guice said he wants to have the groundbreaking before Christmas, although it will be more of a ceremonial groundbreaking with construction to follow after.

“It’s to give people a positive thing to think about, like a Christmas present to the community,” he said.