N.Y. Public Health Law § 2994-a: Definitions

§ 2994-a. Definitions. The following words or phrases, used in this

article, shall have the following meanings, unless the context otherwise

requires:

1. "Adult" means any person who is eighteen years of age or older or

has married.

2. "Attending practitioner" means a physician, nurse practitioner or

physician assistant, selected by or assigned to a patient pursuant to

hospital policy, who has primary responsibility for the treatment and

care of the patient. Where more than one physician, nurse practitioner

or physician assistant shares such responsibility, or where a physician,

nurse practitioner or physician assistant is acting on the attending

practitioner's behalf, any such physician, nurse practitioner or

physician assistant may act as an attending practitioner pursuant to

this article.

2-a. "Attending nurse practitioner" means a nurse practitioner,

selected by or assigned to a patient pursuant to hospital policy, who

has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient.

Where more than one physician and/or nurse practitioner shares such

responsibility, or where a physician or nurse practitioner is acting on

the attending physician's or attending nurse practitioner's behalf, any

such physician or nurse practitioner may act as an attending physician

or attending nurse practitioner pursuant to this article.

3. "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation" means measures, as specified in

regulations promulgated by the commissioner, to restore cardiac function

or to support ventilation in the event of a cardiac or respiratory

arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation shall not include measures to

improve ventilation and cardiac function in the absence of an arrest.

4. "Close friend" means any person, eighteen years of age or older,

who is a close friend of the patient, or a relative of the patient

(other than a spouse, adult child, parent, brother or sister), who has

maintained such regular contact with the patient as to be familiar with

the patient's activities, health, and religious or moral beliefs, and

who presents a signed statement to that effect to the attending

practitioner.

5. "Decision-making capacity" means the ability to understand and

appreciate the nature and consequences of proposed health care,

including the benefits and risks of and alternatives to proposed health

care, and to reach an informed decision.

5-a. "Decisions regarding hospice care" means the decision to enroll

or disenroll in hospice, and consent to the hospice plan of care and

modifications to that plan.

6. "Developmental disability" means a developmental disability as

defined in subdivision twenty-two of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene

law.

7. "Domestic partner" means a person who, with respect to another

person:

(a) is formally a party in a domestic partnership or similar

relationship with the other person, entered into pursuant to the laws of

the United States or of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, or

registered as the domestic partner of the other person with any registry

maintained by the employer of either party or any state, municipality,

or foreign jurisdiction; or

(b) is formally recognized as a beneficiary or covered person under

the other person's employment benefits or health insurance; or

(c) is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person for

support, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances indicating a

mutual intent to be domestic partners including but not limited to:

common ownership or joint leasing of real or personal property; common

householding, shared income or shared expenses; children in common;

signs of intent to marry or become domestic partners under paragraph (a)

or (b) of this subdivision; or the length of the personal relationship

of the persons.

Each party to a domestic partnership shall be considered to be the

domestic partner of the other party. "Domestic partner" shall not

include a person who is related to the other person by blood in a manner

that would bar marriage to the other person in New York state. "Domestic

partner" also shall not include any person who is less than eighteen

years of age or who is the adopted child of the other person or who is

related by blood in a manner that would bar marriage in New York state

to a person who is the lawful spouse of the other person.

8. "Emancipated minor patient" means a minor patient who is the parent

of a child, or who is sixteen years of age or older and living

independently from his or her parents or guardian.

9. "Ethics review committee" means the interdisciplinary committee

established in accordance with the requirements of section twenty-nine

hundred ninety-four-m of this article.

10. "General hospital" means a general hospital as defined in

subdivision ten of section twenty-eight hundred one of this chapter

excluding a ward, wing, unit or other part of a general hospital

operated for the purpose of providing services for persons with mental

illness pursuant to an operating certificate issued by the commissioner

of mental health.

11. "Guardian of a minor" or "guardian" means a health care guardian

or a legal guardian of the person of a minor.

12. "Health care" means any treatment, service, or procedure to

diagnose or treat an individual's physical or mental condition.

Providing nutrition or hydration orally, without reliance on medical

treatment, is not health care under this article and is not subject to

this article.

13. "Health care agent" means a health care agent designated by an

adult pursuant to article twenty-nine-C of this chapter.

14. "Health care decision" means any decision to consent or refuse to

consent to health care.

15. "Health care guardian" means an individual appointed by a court,

pursuant to subdivision four of section twenty-nine hundred

ninety-four-r of this article, as the guardian of a minor patient solely

for the purpose of deciding about life-sustaining treatment pursuant to

this article.

16. "Health care provider" means an individual or facility licensed,

certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to administer

health care in the ordinary course of business or professional practice.

17. "Health or social services practitioner" means a registered

professional nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, physician assistant,

psychologist, licensed master social worker, or licensed clinical social

worker, licensed, certified or authorized under the education law acting

within such health or social services practitioner's scope of practice.

17-a. "Hospice" means a hospice as defined in article forty of this

chapter, without regard to where the hospice care is provided.

18. "Hospital" means a general hospital, a residential health care

facility, or hospice.

19. "Life-sustaining treatment" means any medical treatment or

procedure without which the patient will die within a relatively short

time, as determined by an attending physician to a reasonable degree of

medical certainty. For the purpose of this article, cardiopulmonary

resuscitation is presumed to be life-sustaining treatment without the

necessity of a determination by an attending physician.

20. "Mental hygiene facility" means a facility operated or licensed by

the office of mental health or the office for people with developmental

disabilities as defined in subdivision six of section 1.03 of the mental

hygiene law.

21. "Mental illness" means a mental illness as defined in subdivision

twenty of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law, and does not include

dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, or other disorders related to

dementia.

22. "Minor" means any person who is not an adult.

22-a. "Nurse practitioner" means a nurse practitioner certified

pursuant to section sixty-nine hundred ten of the education law who is

practicing in accordance with subdivision three of section sixty-nine

hundred two of the education law.

23. "Order not to resuscitate" means an order not to attempt

cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the event a patient suffers cardiac or

respiratory arrest.

24. "Parent", for the purpose of a health care decision about a minor

patient, means a parent who has custody of, or who has maintained

substantial and continuous contact with, the minor patient.

25. "Patient" means a person admitted to a hospital.

26. "Person connected with the case" means the patient, any person on

the surrogate list, a parent or guardian of a minor patient, the

hospital administrator, an attending practitioner, any other health or

social services practitioner who is or has been directly involved in the

patient's care, and any duly authorized state agency, including the

facility director or regional director for a patient transferred from a

mental hygiene facility and the facility director for a patient

transferred from a correctional facility.

27. "Reasonably available" means that a person to be contacted can be

contacted with diligent efforts by an attending physician, another

person acting on behalf of an attending physician, or the hospital.

28. "Residential health care facility" means a residential health care

facility as defined in subdivision three of section twenty-eight hundred

one of this chapter.

29. "Surrogate" means the person selected to make a health care

decision on behalf of a patient pursuant to section twenty-nine hundred

ninety-four-d of this article.

30. "Surrogate list" means the list set forth in subdivision one of

section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this article.