As President Obama’s healthcare law is expected to extend insurance coverage to millions of Americans by 2014, raising fresh worries about a shortage of doctors, the American Fork hospital says it has plans to grow by 75,000 square feet or a third of its current size.

American Fork City Council is expected to approve an expansion of American Fork Hospital this week, just 10 years after its last major expansion, which added a three-story wing, the latest sign of Utah County’s relentless growth and increased demand for healthcare services.

The area slated for expansion is south of the existing hospital buiding, according to plans reviewed by the American Fork Citizen, an area currently consisting of parking, some landscape areas and a helipad. The expansion plan proposes a two-story building that will house a new emergency department on the ground level and new operating rooms on the second floor, which hospital officials say are already greatly needed. In addition, this 20-month project, expected to break ground this year, will include planting no fewer than 141 trees and 483 shrubs.

The city has raised concerns about adequate water supply for a 283,000-square-foot hospital, which delivers more than 3,000 babies a year in its 14 labor and delivery rooms. Currently, there are 89 licensed beds, a medical staff of more than 200 and more than 700 employees. The city says it also worries that the hospital’s only access point, 1100 East, won’t be enough to accomodate traffic and says there will be a need for access on all sides of the hospital, a growth not anticipated 30 years ago, when the hospital moved from 350 E. 300 North, now the Heritage Convalescent Center.

In 1937, American Fork’s first community hospital opened its doors. Located in the old American Fork Co-op building at 51 E. Main St. (now American Fork city offices), patients and visitors had to scale the sometimes daunting 33 steps to reach the second-floor entrance. In 1950, the hospital relocated to a new building at 350 E. 300 North. The new facility incorporated 25 patient beds and an additional 26-bed expansion took place in 1959.

In 1978, American Fork Hospital joined Intermountain Healthcare. Three years later, a new building was completed and the hospital moved to its current location, officially opening as a 55-bed facility.

In 2002, a two-year expansion project was completed, which greatly increased the hospital’s capacity, services and level of medical technology to benefit patients in need. In 2005, the hospital partnered with Huntsman Cancer Institute to combine clinical care with research. Treatment includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, clinical trials and full surgical options.