Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia › Department 111 - RULES OF DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH › Chapter 111-8 - HEALTHCARE FACILITY REGULATION › Subject 111-8-100 - RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR PROXY CAREGIVERS USED IN LICENSED HEALTHCARE FACILITIES › Rule 111-8-100-.03 - Definitions

Current through Rules and Regulations filed through June 27, 2024
In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires, the
				  terms set forth herein shall mean the following:
(a) "Administrative action" means the
				initiation of a contested case as defined in the Georgia Administrative
				Procedure Act (APA), O.C.G.A. §
									50-13-2(2)
				 against a licensed facility for violation of
				licensing requirements.
(b)
				"Client(s)" means a person or persons receiving services through the licensed
				facility. Clients include such terms as residents, consumers, patients and
				program participants.
(c)
				"Competency-based training" means training which is tied to an identified set
				of skills and knowledge and requires demonstration and documentation of an
				acceptable level of performance of a task or achievement of an
				outcome.
(d) "Complex wound care"
				means the specialized nursing care that is required for certain wounds.
				Typically, the following kinds of wounds require complex care: wounds in the
				lower extremity of diabetic patients, pressure ulcers, chronic venous ulcers,
				wounds following extensive necrotic processes caused by infections (Fournier's
				and other), and chronic wounds related to vasculitis and immunosuppressive
				therapy that have not healed using simple care.
(e) "Department" means the Department of
				Community Health, its agents and employees.
(f) "Health maintenance activities" are
				limited to those activities that, but for a disability, a person could
				reasonably be expected to do for himself or herself. Such activities are
				typically taught by a registered professional nurse, but may be taught by an
				attending physician, advanced practice registered nurse, physician assistant,
				or directly to a patient and are part of ongoing care. Health maintenance
				activities are those activities that do not include complex care such as
				administration or intravenous medications, central line maintenance, and
				complex wound care; do not require complex observations or critical decisions;
				can be safely performed and have reasonable precise, unchanging directions; and
				have outcomes or results that are reasonably predictable. Health maintenance
				activities conducted pursuant to these rules shall not be considered the
				practice of nursing.
(g)
				"Individual with a disability" or "disabled individual" means an individual who
				has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major
				life activities and who meets the criteria for a disability under state or
				federal law.
(h) "Inspection" means
				any examination by the department or its representatives of a licensed
				healthcare facility, including but not necessarily limited to the premises, and
				staff, persons in care, and documents pertinent to initial and continued
				licensing so that the department may determine whether a facility is operating
				in compliance with licensing requirements. The term "inspection" includes any
				survey, complaint investigation, monitoring visit, or other inquiry conducted
				for the purpose of making a compliance determination with respect to licensing
				requirements.
(i) "Legally
				authorized representative" means the person legally authorized to act on behalf
				of the individual with a disability with respect to providing consent to
				medical treatment or procedures not prohibited by law which may be suggested,
				recommended, prescribed or directed by a duly licensed physician or as
				otherwise authorized by law. The representative is not authorized to act on
				behalf of the individual with a disability to provide consent until a medical
				determination has been made that the individual with a disability lacks
				decision-making capacity regarding medical treatment or the ability to
				communicate such decision by any means.
(j) "Licensed healthcare professional" means
				an individual who is licensed and authorized under Georgia law to perform
				certain healthcare practices. The term includes physicians, advance practice
				registered nurses, physician's assistants, registered nurses, pharmacists,
				physical, speech and occupational therapists who are functioning within their
				scopes of licensed practice. The term does not include licensed practical
				nurses, certified nursing assistants or medication aides.
(k) "Licensed healthcare facility" or
				"licensed facility" means any agency, institution, entity or person subject to
				regulation by the department under Chapters 7, 13, 22, 23, 44 and Title 31;
				paragraph (8) of subsection (d) of Code Section
				31-2-4; Chapter 5 of Title 26; and
				Article 7 of Chapter 6 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
				except hospitals, residential mental health facilities, nursing homes,
				intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded, Medicare-certified home
				health agencies and hospices.
(l)
				"Licensed residential facility" means a licensed facility which serves as the
				home, either temporarily or permanently, of an individual with a disability.
				Such facilities are licensed as assisted living communities, personal care
				homes, community living arrangements, residential drug abuse treatment programs
				and traumatic brain injury facilities.
(m) "Proxy caregiver" means an unlicensed
				person or a licensed health care facility that has been selected by a disabled
				individual or a person legally authorized to act on behalf of such individual
				to serve as such individual's proxy caregiver, provided that such person shall
				receive training and shall demonstrate the necessary knowledge and skills to
				perform documented health maintenance activities, including identified
				specialized procedures, for such individual.
(n) "Training" means teaching proxy
				caregivers the necessary knowledge and skills to perform health maintenance
				activities for disabled individuals.
(o) "Written plan of care" means the specific
				set of written instructions which have been determined necessary, usually by a
				registered professional nurse, to implement the written orders of the attending
				physician or an advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant
				working under a nurse protocol agreement or job description respectively. The
				written plan of care must specify the frequency of training and evaluation
				requirements for the proxy caregiver, including additional training when
				changes in the written plan of care necessitate added duties for which such
				proxy caregiver has not previously been trained.
O.C.G.A.
				  §§
											31-7-2.2,
				  31-9-2,
				  43-26-12(a)(9).