Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center ICU Receives Generous Gift from Ronald and Joy Paul Family Foundation

ROCKVILLE, MD – Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center has received a generous gift from the Ronald and Joy Paul Family Foundation for a state-of-the-art replacement Intensive Care Unit. The ICU, currently under construction within a new patient tower at the hospital, will be named The Ron and Joy Paul Family Intensive Care Unit once in service.

“There are no words to express our gratitude to Ron and Joy for their ongoing generosity and for their commitment to our community,” said Terry Forde, President & CEO of Adventist HealthCare. “It is our vision to provide world-class care to every patient, every time. Ron and Joy’s gift will help ensure that the most critically ill residents of Montgomery County will receive that care in a space designed for optimal healing.”

“Shady Grove Medical Center’s new patient tower will elevate the standard of emergency and intensive care in Montgomery County,” added Daniel Cochran, President of Shady Grove Medical Center. “We deeply appreciate that Ron and Joy Paul share our commitment to offer hope and healing to all who seek services. As a community hospital, it is particularly meaningful and gratifying to receive such a transformative gift from residents of the county.”

Ron and Joy Paul have a long history of giving to the community in their professional careers and in their philanthropic activities.

They are passionate about healthcare causes, particularly kidney disease. Ron, who underwent a kidney transplant in 1990 and again in 2010, understands the impact serious disease has on families. In 2015, they helped establish the George Washington University Hospital’s Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center.

The Paul’s gift to Shady Grove Medical Center supports their community hospital. “We have lived in Montgomery County our entire adult lives. It’s our home. We are proud that our family can help ensure that county residents can count on state-of-the-art intensive care when they need it,” Ron said. “If Ron or I needed an ambulance, it would take us to Shady Grove,” Joy added. “How special it is for our family to fund an ICU that has been designed to address the needs of patients today and into the future.”

To date, Shady Grove Medical Center has raised more than $12 million in philanthropic gifts from community members to help build the new tower. The goal is to raise $16 million of the more than $200 million needed to complete the project. In addition to the ICU, the tower will house a state-of-the-art emergency department and new private inpatient rooms that incorporate the latest in evidence-based design to maximize infection prevention and promote healing.

Research on optimal healing environments guided the tower’s design. Its innovative elements include the use of natural lighting wherever possible, soothing wall colors, rooms that are ideally positioned within the sight lines of caregivers and environmentally sustainable construction materials. The tower design also considers the wellbeing of healthcare workers, who contributed to the new building’s planning. Learning from the pandemic, the new ICU space allows maximum flexibility and includes features for responding to future public health emergencies.

“We thank Ron and Joy for recognizing the importance of critical care services to the community and supporting our work,” said Ansanus Obizuo, RN, Director of Critical Care Services at Shady Grove Medical Center. “A new, modern Intensive Care Unit at Shady Grove Medical Center will make a tremendous difference for our patients and the medical teams who care for them.”