Terms Used In New York Laws > Public Health > Article 29-CC - Family Health Care Decisions Act

• Adult: means any person who is eighteen years of age or older or has married. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Developmental disability: means a developmental disability as defined in subdivision twenty-two of § 1. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Ethics review committee: means the interdisciplinary committee established in accordance with the requirements of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-m of this article. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• guardian: means a health care guardian or a legal guardian of the person of a minor. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Health care: means any treatment, service, or procedure to diagnose or treat an individual's physical or mental condition. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Health care agent: means a health care agent designated by an adult pursuant to article twenty-nine-C of this chapter. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Health care decision: means any decision to consent or refuse to consent to health care. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Hospice: means a hospice as defined in article forty of this chapter, without regard to where the hospice care is provided. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Hospital: means a general hospital, a residential health care facility, or hospice. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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 § 1. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Mental illness: means a mental illness as defined in subdivision twenty of § 1. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Minor: means any person who is not an adult. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Nurse practitioner: means a nurse practitioner certified pursuant to § 6910 of the education law who is practicing in accordance with subdivision three of § 6902 of the education law. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Order not to resuscitate: means an order not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the event a patient suffers cardiac or respiratory arrest. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Patient: means a person admitted to a hospital. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• 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 physician, 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Residential health care facility: means a residential health care facility as defined in subdivision three of section twenty-eight hundred one of this chapter. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• 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. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Surrogate list: means the list set forth in subdivision one of section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this article. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2994-A
• Testify: Answer questions in court.