Hospital's grassroots campaign sways state legislature

There were no full-page newspaper ads or catchy radio jingles, and it cost virtually nothing to implement, yet a Massachusetts hospital’s recent PR and marketing campaign was so powerful that it influenced legislators to change state law.

The campaign to get Kayla’s Law—legislation that requires fitness centers to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on-site—passed in Massachusetts began in 2006 when Kayla Richards, a 22-year-old diagnostic imaging tech at Plymouth’s Jordan Hospital, died suddenly while exercising at a local fitness center.