One Family's Story Became A Better Way Forward.
Janet and Laura Greenwald are one of the only mother/daughter writing teams in the entertainment industry.
They began their careers in production on network sitcoms at MGM and Warner Bros. Their lives later took an unexpected turn following the hospitalization and death of Jan's mother and Laura's grandmother, Elaine Sullivan.
Grandma Elaine.
Elaine Sullivan was an active seventy-one-year-old living on her own in Chicago. One day she fell at home, striking her head and mouth and leaving her unable to speak.
Despite the fact that the hospital had family contact information available, Jan and Laura were not notified of Elaine's hospitalization for days. By the time the call finally came, they could not get to her before she died.
Later, they learned that the doctors treating Elaine did not have critical medical and prescription information at their fingertips.
No family should have to discover too late that someone they love has been lying in a hospital without them.
Elaine Sullivan
Mom. Grandma. The reason this story matters.
We Couldn't Let The Story End There.
When Laura and Jan discovered that there was no law requiring the notification they had assumed would happen, grief turned into action. They worked with legislators in Illinois and California and helped enact three Next of Kin notification laws.
Then hospitals began asking a practical question: How do we make this work?
Laura and Jan worked with medical professionals to create the Seven Steps to Successful Notification System, a practical way to help hospital teams identify and locate next of kin, make the call, document the process and keep follow-up from falling through the cracks.
Explore Notify In Seven™From Hospitals To Households.
Over time, the same question kept appearing in different forms: what information would make this emergency easier if someone had organized it before they needed it?
That question eventually led to Get Your Stuff Together® and Ready In Ten™, practical guides and tools that help families make important information, plans and keepsakes easier to protect and easier to find.
The two organizations have different jobs, but they come from the same story. NOKEP focuses on connection in healthcare. GYST and Ready In Ten help families prepare their own information before an emergency ever reaches the hospital.
Visit Get Your Stuff TogetherSometimes One Ridiculously Simple Thing Really Can Make All The Difference.
One call. One contact. One piece of medical history. And a person who knows what to do next.
People. Information. Connection.
Full Circle.
Laura & Jan