New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 8 - HEALTH › Chapter 43E - GENERAL LICENSURE PROCEDURES AND STANDARDS APPLICABLE TO ALL LICENSED FACILITIES › Subchapter 8 - MANDATORY OVERTIME › Section 8:43E-8.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, as used in this subchapter, shall
				  have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
"Chronic short staffing" means a situation characterized by long
				  standing vacancies in that portion of the facility's master staffing plan applicable
				  to the work unit of an employee who files a complaint where such vacancies are the
				  result of open positions that continually remain unfilled over a period of 90 days
				  or more despite active recruitment efforts.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Health and Senior
				  Services.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior
				  Services.
"Direct patient care activities" or "clinical services" means
				  activities/services in which an employee provides direct service to
				  patient/residents in a clinical setting, including the emergency department,
				  inpatient bedside, operating room, other clinical specialty treatment area, or, in
				  the case of a patient served by a home health care agency or health service firm,
				  the individual's home.
"Employee" means an individual employed by a health care facility
				  who is involved in direct patient care activities or clinical services and receives
				  an hourly wage, but shall not include a physician.
"Employer" means an individual, partnership, association,
				  corporation or person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the
				  interest of a health care facility.
"Health care facility" means a health care facility licensed by
				  the Department of Health and Senior Services pursuant to P.L. 1971, c.136
				  (26:2H-1 et seq.), a State or county
				  psychiatric hospital, a State developmental center, or a health care service firm
				  registered by the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public
				  Safety pursuant to P.L. 1960, c.39 (56:8-1 et seq.).
"Licenses" means the action taken by a State agency to license,
				  certify, or register a health care facility subject to the jurisdiction of that
				  State agency.
"On-call time" means time spent by an employee who is not
				  currently working on the premises of the place of employment, but who is compensated
				  for availability, or as a condition of employment has agreed to be available, to
				  return to the premises of the place of employment on short notice if the need
				  arises.
"Reasonable efforts" means that the employer shall:
1. Seek persons who volunteer to work extra time from all
				  available qualified staff who are working at the time of the unforeseeable emergent
				  circumstance;
2. Contact all qualified employees who have made themselves
				  available to work extra time;
3. Seek the use of qualified per diem staff; and
4. Seek qualified personnel from a contracted temporary agency
				  when such staff is permitted by law, regulation or applicable collective bargaining
				  agreements.
"Unforeseeable emergent circumstance" means an unpredictable or
				  unavoidable occurrence at unscheduled intervals relating to health care delivery
				  that requires immediate action.