Shady Grove Opens Horizon Tower, Enhancing Emergency and Critical Care Spaces
Design Focuses on Speed, Safety and Patient Experience
ROCKVILLE, Md. - Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center advanced how it cares for emergency and critical care patients on Sunday, June 14, with the opening of its new Horizon Tower. The six-story addition to the hospital features a modernized emergency department, state-of-the-art intensive care unit and newly designed rooms for patients who are recovering from stroke and neurological conditions.
Emergency services opened in the tower at 4 a.m. on June 14. Later that morning, the hospital transitioned 67 intensive care, progressive care and stroke medical-surgical patients into the tower in a long-planned and carefully coordinated move.
The Horizon Tower, which is adjacent to the existing hospital, includes a replacement for Shady Grove’s adult emergency department, which treats more than 61,000 patients annually. The new emergency department has 38 treatment bays with glass doors to enhance privacy and reduce noise. Other enhancements include:
- dedicated X-ray and CT equipment in the emergency department to speed imaging
- three decentralized nurses’ stations that give care teams better sight lines to patients
The tower also repositions the hospital’s cardiac catheterization labs directly below the emergency department. This more efficient layout helps save crucial minutes for Shady Grove's nationally recognized heart attack and stroke care teams.
The 150,352-square-foot tower also replaces 74 rooms to improve patient experience, enhance employee well-being, and boost clinical efficiency and emergency readiness.
The Horizon Tower at Shady Grove Medical Center is among the first hospital projects in the U.S. designed following the COVID-19 pandemic. Some design sessions took place on Zoom and Shady Grove caregivers took part in planning its spaces. Pandemic-era learnings are evident throughout the tower. Units have larger negative pressure rooms. One tower unit can convert completely to care for infectious diseases. The tower also includes smartly designed surfaces and added technology to enhance infection prevention.
Nature is highlighted throughout the tower, drawing on evidence that sunlight and green views can speed healing. One of the tower’s signature spaces is a lush outdoor ICU family patio, where loved ones can enjoy fresh air or a moment of tranquil respite steps away from the bedside.
The Horizon Tower also features a rooftop helipad, which went into service in August 2025. A signature light column on the tower will glow with colors to mark major holidays and health recognition events throughout the year.
Major donors to the almost $250 million project were recently recognized during naming ceremonies. The hospital unveiled the tower's Ron and Joy Paul Family Intensive Care Unit and the Larry and Fern Bensignor Cardiovascular Interventional Radiology Lab in May and the Lois K. Aschenbach Family Lounge in its Emergency Department in early June. Community members and grateful patients donated $22 million to help Shady Grove Medical Center build the tower.
Adventist HealthCare leaders dedicated the building on June 5 during a ribbon cutting ceremony. Shady Grove Medical Center president Dan Cochran noted: "The Horizon Tower represents more than a decade of planning, partnership, hard work and dedication by hundreds of people, all centered around one goal: caring for this community for generations to come."
