Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center treats more than 90,000 emergencies annually. A new tower under construction on the hospital’s Rockville campus in Maryland, United States, marks the first renovation in 20 years to the Shady Grove Emergency Department.

The tower, set to open in 2024, will allow Shady Grove’s emergency patients to receive treatment in more spacious rooms. Walls will replace curtains to elevate privacy and infection control; additional space dedicated to mental health emergencies will be included; and a newly designed observation unit will optimize how caregivers monitor emergency patients, who may require inpatient admission.

Patients will also benefit from modernized critical care spaces for cardiac catheterization and interventional radiology, as well as a new intensive care unit. These spaces will move from the original hospital building to the new tower and connect more closely with the Emergency Department. This relocation will allow care teams to provide patients with even faster, more efficient care in a state-of-the-art environment.

Quality, Speed, and Specialized Care

Every second counts in an emergency, and the most recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that Shady Grove Medical Center’s emergency patients are admitted to the hospital 90 minutes faster than the state’s average time. In 2022, Shady Grove continued its years-long streak of earning American Heart Association recognition for its fast, high-quality treatment of heart attacks and strokes. Shady Grove has also earned The Joint Commission designation, as an advanced thrombectomy-capable center, for its skill in providing area residents with this advanced, minimally invasive stroke intervention.

Little children can get into big pickles, which is why Shady Grove Medical Center opened Montgomery County’s first and largest full-service Pediatric Emergency Department in 1996. The unit is staff by doctors and nurses who specialize in caring for children. Shady Grove is also home to Montgomery County’s only Forensic Medical Unit, with employee nurses who are specially trained to care for victims of abuse, neglect, and human trafficking.

The new care tower helps Shady Grove evolve along with the community’s needs for these specialized emergency services. The tower is also one of the first medical construction projects in the U.S. with infection insights from the COVID-19 pandemic incorporated into its care spaces.

As the tower goes up, Shady Grove Medical Center’s Emergency Department will continue to serve the community 24/7 with full services in two locations, on the hospital’s Rockville campus and at the freestanding Germantown Emergency Center.

The original version of this story was posted by Adventist HealthCare.