On any given night, 95 percent of the beds in Emory-Eastside Medical Center are occupied, the Snellville hospital said.

Sometimes, it's completely full. To meet the demand, the hospital plans a $100 million expansion that will increase capacity by more than a third.

"We need more beds," hospital Chief Operating Officer Dustin Greene said. "Our hospital has been operating at or near capacity, and it's been growing year over year at an alarming rate."

The project will add 72 beds that, along with a previously planned 10-bed expansion, will bring the total to 282. The expansion, which also will include additional parking and a medical office building, could create between 300 and 400 new jobs, Greene said.

The centerpiece of the project is a four-story tower that would house three patient floors with 24 beds each.

Since 1997, the number of admissions has been growing at an annual average of 8 percent, Greene said. Last year, about 11,000 people were admitted to the hospital. Capacity ran from about 95 percent to 100 percent, Chief Executive Officer Kim Ryan said.

Typically, hospitals begin to consider expansion when the capacity rate reaches 80 percent, Ryan said.

The hospital hopes to break ground next year; completion of the project could take two to three years, according to Ryan.

The hospital will create a team to decide how the additional space will be used. Ryan said that some of the expansion will be dedicated to intensive care units and general surgery.

The 10-bed expansion will be devoted to orthopedic joint replacement and spinal surgery patients, Ryan said. It is expected to open in mid-August.

The hospital joins Gwinnett Medical Center, with 479 beds, in expanding to handle demand. Gwinnett Medical Center's Lawrenceville campus is building an eight-story tower that will add 129 beds and four intensive care units. Gwinnett Medical Center, the county's largest hospital, averaged 93 percent of capacity in 2007, according to hospital spokeswoman Andrea Wehrmann.