2013 New York Consolidated Laws
PBH - Public Health
Article 29-CC - (2994-A - 2994-U) FAMILY HEALTH CARE DECISIONS ACT
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 physician" means a physician, 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
  shares such responsibility, or  where  a  physician  is  acting  on  the
  attending physician's behalf, any such physician may act as an attending
  physician 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
  physician.
    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  service  practitioner"  means  a  registered
  professional nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, physician  assistant,
  psychologist  or  licensed clinical social worker, licensed or certified
  pursuant to the  education  law  acting  within  his  or  her  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  of  mental  retardation  and
  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.

    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  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.
    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.