2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 311 - PHYSICIANS, OSTEOPATHS, PODIATRISTS, AND RELATED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS 311.621 Definitions for KRS 311.621 to 311.643.
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311.621 Definitions for KRS 311.621 to 311.643.
As used in KRS 311.621 to 311.643:
(1) "Adult" means a person eighteen (18) years of age or older and who is of
sound mind.
(2) "Advance directive" means a living will directive made in accordance with KRS
311.621 to 311.643, a living will or designation of health care surrogate
executed prior to July 15, 1994, and any other document that provides
directions relative to health care to be provided to the person executing the
document.
(3) "Artificially-provided nutrition and hydration" means sustenance or fluids that
are artificially or technologically administered.
(4) "Attending physician" means the physician who has primary responsibility for
the treatment and care of the patient.
(5) "Decisional capacity" means the ability to make and communicate a health
care decision.
(6) "Directive" means a living will directive in writing voluntarily made by an adult in
accordance with the provisions of KRS 311.621 to 311.643.
(7) "Grantor" means an adult who has executed an advance directive in
accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643.
(8) "Health care decision" means consenting to, or withdrawing consent for, any
medical procedure, treatment, or intervention.
(9) "Health care facility" means any institution, place, building, agency, or portion
thereof, public or private, whether organized for profit or not, used, operated, or
designed to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, nursing, rehabilitative, or
preventive care, and licensed pursuant to KRS Chapter 216B.
(10) "Health care provider" means any health care facility or provider of health
services, including but not limited to, those licensed, certified, or regulated
under the provisions of KRS Chapters 211, 216, 311, 312, 313, or 314.
(11) "Life-prolonging treatment" means any medical procedure, treatment, or
intervention which:
(a) Utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, prolong, restore,
or supplant a spontaneous vital function; and
(b) When administered to a patient would serve only to prolong the dying
process. "Life-prolonging treatment" shall not include the administration of
medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed
necessary to alleviate pain.
(12) "Permanently unconscious" means a condition which, to a reasonable degree
of medical probability, as determined solely by the patient's attending physician
and one (1) other physician on clinical examination, is characterized by an
absence of cerebral cortical functions indicative of consciousness or behavioral
interaction with the environment.
(13) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.
(14) "Responsible party" means an adult who has authority under KRS 311.631 to
make a health care decision for a patient who has not executed a living will
directive.
(15) "Surrogate" means an adult who has been designated to make health care
decisions in accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643.
(16) "Terminal condition" means a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness
which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, as determined solely by
the patient's attending physician and one (1) other physician, is incurable and
irreversible and will result in death within a relatively short time, and where the
application of life-prolonging treatment would serve only to artificially prolong
the dying process.
Effective:July 15, 1994
History: Created 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 235, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1994.
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