KRS § 311.621 — KY Code / Title XXVI / Chapter 311 / Section 311.621
311.621 Definitions for KRS 311.621 to 311.643
Status: in_force

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) "Medical order for scope of treatment" means an actionable medical order signed by

a patient, a patient's legal surrogate, or a responsible party, and the patient's

physician directing the use of life-sustaining treatment for the patient. A medical

order for scope of treatment, if completed, shall implement or apply a health power

of attorney or a living will directive if one exists;

(13) "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;

(14) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of

Kentucky;

(15) "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;

(16) "Surrogate" means an adult who has been designated to make health care decisions

in accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643; and

(17) "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.