Guam - In the next 18 months to two years, the Guam Memorial Hospital should be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the completion of the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit expansion. A request for proposal was issued today for the design and construction of the project.

While the hospital board approved the project a year ago, a complete review process for the RFP to be issued took some time. GMH spokesperson Connor Murphy says the ER will expand between two 2,000 and 4,000 square feet while the ICU will see an additional five to six beds. "Those are the two busiest areas of the hospital and it's greatly needed," he explained. "Right now, our ER is just too small for the population we serve. We see about 30,000 patients there a year. So we're going to be adding not just treatment areas, but also triage rooms, isolation rooms, and trauma rooms."

Bids for the design and construction are due by February 5. The hospital has already identified bond funding for the project.