2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVENTEEN - Housing (§§ 1 — 1546) › Chapter 48 - Assisted Living Housing Projects (§§ 1481 — 1481q) › § 1481 - Definitions

For purposes of this chapter, the definitions set forth herein shall have the following meanings:
(a) Activities of daily living. — Everyday tasks that include personal hygiene, bodily hygiene, sanitary needs, the acts of dressing and bathing, feeding, walking and all other related tasks within the personal care needs that are within the proposed scope of this chapter.
(b) Incidental activities of daily living. — Includes tasks such as cooking, laundry, domestic chores, shopping for groceries and other items, use of transportation, assistance in the management of finances if so requested by the resident, assistance for the use of essential services, and other related tasks within the proposed scope of this chapter.
(c) Alterations. — Any of the following changes performed after the date of the last certification of the housing complex:
(1) Any change in the number of residential units;
(2) any substantial change in the configuration of residential units;
(3) any substantial change in any previously stipulated premise contained in the contract agreement, or
(4) any significant change in the operations plan of the project.
(d) Certification. — Process through which any natural or juridical person seeking to operate a housing project within the conceptual framework of assisted living complies with the requirements set forth by means of this chapter, obtaining the certification of the Department of Housing.
(e) Residency agreement. — Legal document in which an agreement is established between the duly certified model assisted living project and the elderly person that wishes to live in said project, in which all the rights and responsibilities of both the resident and the developer are clearly described, including all the plans and requirements set forth in this chapter.
(f) Services coordinator. — Natural or juridical person responsible for the preparation, assistance, revision and periodic supervision of the residents services plan.
(g) Department. — The Department of Housing of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(h) Therapeutic diet. — Meal plan that has been prescribed or ordered by the primary physician or nutritionist of the resident.
(i) Entity. — Any profit or non profit organization or corporation duly authorized pursuant to Act No. 144 of August 10, 1995, known as the “Corporations Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”.
(j) Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. — All agencies, instrumentalities and other subdivisions, as well as all public corporations and each of the municipalities of Puerto Rico.
(k) Bathroom facilities. — Room equipped with a shower and/or bathtub, lavatory and a toilet in which a person may shower or bathe and perform hygienic activities.
(l) Kitchen facilities. — Room with at least one refrigerator, one lavatory [sic] and one stove.
(m) Room. — Space provided to a resident based on a single or double housing unit.
(n) Modification of certification. — Any action taken by the Department of Housing of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico due to any in the operations plan or any alteration of a project within the conceptual framework of assisted living.
(o) Housing project. — Residential unit established pursuant to this chapter.
(p) Model project. — Residential unit established within the conceptual framework of assisted living, pursuant to this chapter, in which the government shall evaluate the implementation of this chapter in said project and shall then evaluate the results and make provisions to extend same to other areas and maintain said concept in a permanent manner.
(q) Person. — Any natural or juridical person.
(r) Elderly person. — Any natural person sixty (60) years old or more, who meets the qualification criteria pursuant to this chapter that are consistent with the concept of assisted living. When due to medical necessity and in the best interest of the person’s safety, said person requires personal or medical care different from that set forth in this chapter, said person shall not be pursuant [sic] to the provisions of this chapter, and therefore, the residence cannot give lodging to said person pursuant to this chapter. The administrators shall make this determination in those cases in which the safety, welfare, or comfort of the person may be affected adversely by the fact that their specific needs cannot be adequately met, nor can the limitations they suffer be dealt with thoroughly, given that they are not within the conceptual framework of assisted living.
Said determination shall be in agreement with the guiding criteria prepared by means of regulation to be set forth by the Office for such purposes.
(s) Office. — The Office of the Advocate for the Elderly, Office of the Governor.
(t) Medication monitoring plan. — A program for reminding the residents to take their scheduled medication. For the purposes of this plan, residents shall be reminded to take their medication as scheduled, which includes opening the container, reading the labels, observing and documenting the residents while they take their medication, and verification of the dose that the resident shall self-administer against the instructions on medication labels. The service coordinator or the person designated by same shall make sure that said resident has obtained and taken the dose as prescribed and shall keep a written record indicating the actions of the resident concerning said medication.
(u) Ombudsman. — The Ombudsman for Aged Persons Residing in Long-Term Care Establishments, created by Act No. 308 of October 3, 1999.
(v) Sponsor. — Person or legal entity named on the certification of an assisted living residence, or the person named in the application for renewal of certification of a previously certified residence.
(w) Legal representative. — A tutor, guardian or representative of an elderly person, duly authorized by a court with jurisdiction, or by means of a duly granted power of attorney, when legally appropriate.
(x) Residence. — Entity that provides room and board and administers personal care services for the elderly who require assistance with their activities of daily living. This shall include any non profit entity that provides daily living assistance to three (3) or more elderly persons who have neither consanguinity nor affinity with the persons that manage said entity. For purposes of this chapter, the residence shall have not less than five (5) residential units and shall display the certification for the operation of said residence issued by the Department of Housing in a location that is visible to all visitors and residents. Excluded from the foregoing definition are long term care centers that provide rehabilitation, convalescence or nursing services to individuals; hospices that render services to terminal patients and all centers that render services to elderly persons with substantial cognitive, physical limitations, or limitations of any other nature which greatly limits their self sufficiency, or any establishment pursuant to §§ 351 et seq. of Title 8, known as the “Establishments for the Aged Act”.
The determination of which type of resident is pursuant to the preceding definition shall be made by the Office of the Advocate for the Elderly. For said purpose, the Office shall seek advice from an interdisciplinary team of experts in the care of elderly persons to establish the guidelines for making the corresponding determination. The residences shall follow said guiding criteria and guidelines set forth by the Office for the determination of whether or not a patient is protected by this chapter at all times. Said determination shall be the object of a review during the periodic visits of the Office and in the process of certification of the residence pursuant to this chapter. The residence shall not combine the structural and conceptual framework of assisted living with any other organizational arrangements that include elderly care establishments.
(y) Resident. — Elderly person that lives in a residence within the conceptual framework of assisted living and who receives individualized services within a program designed individually by means of a residency agreement who does not require continuous or supervised medical care.
(z) Serious risk. — Any situation in which one or more residents of a residence established within the conceptual framework of assisted living is in imminent danger of death or exposed to immediate and serious emotional or physical harm resulting from any act or omission by the Sponsor or persons pursuant to the supervision of the Sponsor of said entity.
(aa) Secretary. — Secretary of the Department of Housing of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(bb) Unit. — Section within the conceptual framework of assisted living residence that is designed to be occupied according to the residency agreement by one (1) or two (2) persons as their private room, with a door with an external lock, a bathroom, and a small kitchen (kitchenette). Nevertheless, the Department of Housing is hereby empowered to vary the design of the kitchenette as long as each resident has direct access to kitchen facilities.
(cc) Assisted living. — The concept of assistance created in housing projects in which any entity shall comply with the following requirements: (1) to provide spacious rooms; and (2) to provide separate personal care for three (3) or more elderly persons that are not related within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity to the provider of said services, either directly through the employees of said entity or by means of agreements with other personal care organizations; and (3) to be able to accept payment or reimbursements from third parties in behalf of or from the residents, as payment or installments toward the lease rent rate set forth by means of the residency agreement.
History —Sept. 3, 2003, No. 244, § 2.