Kari Martin was one of the first patients to experience the new birthing center at Island Hospital this week when she gave birth to her second child, Dylan Martin, Wednesday morning.

Martin, 30, works for the hospital in admitting and has seen the facility as an employee and as a mom, before and after the remodel.

Her mother, Kathy Eagan, 60, and childhood friend, Lisa Steele, 28, visited Eagan Thursday afternoon while Dylan slept in her arms. Martin said the facilities are very accommodating to family and friends visiting or staying with mothers.

“I feel like it’s more family oriented than it was before,” Martin said.

She gave birth at Island Hospital about 20 months ago in the older facilities and likes the additional rooms and the remodeled room that she chose. The rooms are larger and feature a few family-friendly amenities like benches that double as beds, rocking chairs and private bathrooms.

Martin’s remodeled room and the additional space in the birthing suite makes up a small portion of the remodel and expansion Island Hospital will celebrate Tuesday evening at a dedication in the facility’s new expanded lobby.

Workers wrapped up cosmetic touches to the second phase of the project last week, and the hospital will reopen its main lobby and new facilities at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The second phase included the birthing suite, a larger front lobby, a chapel and larger cafeteria. The remodel also allowed designers to create more openings for natural light and new courtyards.

The birth center grew from 1,000 square feet to 5,500 square feet, adding two labor rooms and two outpatient rooms to the original four patient rooms. The facility also added jetted tubs and equipment to monitor a baby’s heart rate during labor.

These expansions followed a larger emergency room, privatized bedrooms and diagnostic imaging facilities completed in September.

Island Hospital CEO Vince Oliver said he hopes the new facilities will help keep patients on the island. And if the emergency room is any indication, it will.

Hospital spokesman Dennis Richards said the hospital has seen 25 percent more emergency patients since opening its new facility in September.

“The experience that we’re having is very similar to other hospitals who have built new emergency rooms,” Oliver said.

The hospital has 10 rooms now for intensive care, expanding from six. If the six beds were full, a new ICU patient was sent to another hospital. Richards said Island Hospital will not have to divert any more patients.

Hospital employees and community members will celebrate the expansion at 5:30 p.m. July 1, with a formal dedication beginning at 6 p.m. The event will take place adjacent to the reopened main entrance at 1211 24th St. in Anacortes.

Those attending the event will see items selected for a time capsule to be opened in 2037 for Island Hospital’s 75th anniversary.

For more information, call 360-299-1371.

• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .