V.I. Code tit. 19, § 221 (2019)
2019 US Virgin Islands Code|Title 19 - Health|Part II - Hospitals and Nursing Schools|Chapter 15 - Licensing, Inspection and Regulation of Health Facilities and Health Services|§ 221. Definitions

 (1) “Ambulatory surgical facility” means a facility, not a part of a hospital, including “freestanding facilities”, which provides surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization. (2) “Board” refers to each of the following Boards individually for matters pertaining to them—Allied Health Professions Board, Laboratory Licensure Board, Podiatry Board, Veterinary Board, Pharmacy Board, Optometry Board, Nurse Licensure Board, Medical Board, Psychology Board, Dental Board, Chiropractic Board, and Physical Therapy Board. (3) “Capital expenditure” means an expenditure made by or on behalf of a health care facility which under generally accepted accounting principles is not properly chargeable as an expense of operation and maintenance, and which is $100,000 or more for each twelve-month period. The cost of any studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications and other activities essential to the acquisition, improvement, expansion or replacement of any facility or equipment with respect to which an expenditure is made shall be included in determining if the expenditure exceeds the expenditure minimum of $100,000. (4) “Certificate of Need (CON)” means a process whereby the territory grants permission to health care providers to establish health care services, expand health care services, construct health care facilities, and/or acquire major medical equipment which satisfies an estimated unmet need in a defined health service geographic area. (5) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Health. (6) “Health care service” means clinically related services (i.e., diagnostic, treatment, or rehabilitative) and includes alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health services, home health care services and homemaker services, ambulance services, including ambulance, boat and other medical transportation, pharmacies, laboratories, radiology services, and medical and prosthetic supply services, including institutional health services and pre-hospital emergency ambulance services. (7) “Health facility” means hospitals, health care clinics, health centers, skilled nursing facilities, mental health facilities, kidney disease treatment centers (including freestanding hemodialysis units), intermediate care facilities, ambulatory surgical facilities, rehabilitation facilities, health maintenance organizations, and hospice care facilities. (8) “Health maintenance organization” or “HMO” means a public or private organization organized under the laws of the Virgin Islands, which: (i) provides or otherwise makes available to enrolled participants health care services, including at least the following basic health care services: usual physician services, hospitalization, laboratory, x-ray, emergency preventive services, and out-of-area coverage; (ii) is compensated (except for copayments) for the provision of basic health care services to enrolled participants by a payment which is paid on a periodic basis without regard to the date the health care services are provided and which is fixed without regard to the frequency, extent, or kind of health services actually provided; and (iii) provides physicians' services primarily (A) directly through physicians who are either employees or partners of the organization, or (B) through arrangements with an individual group practice or on an individual practice basis. (9) “Hospice care” means the following items and services provided to a terminally ill individual by, or by others under arrangements made by, a hospice program under a written plan for providing such care to the individual established and periodically reviewed by the individual's attending physician, and by the medical director and an interdisciplinary group of the program: (A) nursing care provided by or under the supervision of a registered professional nurse, (B) physical or occupational therapy or speech-language pathology, (C) medical social services under the direction of a physician, (D) home health aide and homemaker services, (E) medical supplies (including drugs and biologicals) and the use of medicinal applicants, (F) short-term inpatient care (including both respite care and procedures necessary for pain control and acute and chronic symptom management) in an inpatient facility, and (G) counseling (including dietary counseling with respect to care of the terminally ill individual and adjustment to his death. (10) “Hospital” means a place devoted primarily to the maintenance and operation of facilities for the diagnosis, treatment or care of inpatients by or under the supervision of a physician. (11) “Institutional health service” means organized health services which are provided in or through health care facilities, and includes other entities in or through which such services are provided, and which entail annual operating expenses of at least $100,000. (12) “Intermediate care facility” means an institution which provides to inpatients, on a regular basis, health-related care and treatment which a hospital or skilled nursing facility provides but who, because of their physical condition, require health related care and services above the level of room and board. (13) “Major medical equipment” means medical equipment which is used to provide medical and other health services and which costs $100,000 or more. In determining whether medical equipment costs $100,000 or more, the specifications and other activities essential to the acquisition of such equipment shall be included. (14) “Physician” means a doctor of medicine or osteopathy legally authorized to practice medicine and surgery in the Virgin Islands. (15) “Psychiatric hospital” means an institution which primarily provides to inpatients, by or under the supervision of a physician, specialized services for the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of mentally ill and emotionally disturbed persons. (16) “Rehabilitation facility” means an inpatient facility which is operated for the primary purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of disabled persons through an integrated program of medical and other services which are provided under competent professional supervision. (17) “Skilled nursing facility” means an institution or a distinct part of an institution which primarily provides to inpatients skilled nursing care, and related services for patients who require medical or nursing care, or rehabilitation services for the rehabilitation of injured, disabled, or sick persons. (18) “Stand-alone facility” means a facility that furnishes health care services which is neither integrated with, nor is a department of a hospital and is physically separate and freestanding. (19) “Urgent care facility” means a facility outside of a hospital which provides medical care and services to people with urgent but not serious medical problems. They are alternatives to emergency rooms.