New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 17 - TREASURY - GENERAL › Chapter 41 - OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSPERSON FOR THE INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE RULES › Subchapter 2 - PROCEDURES REQUIRED PRIOR TO WITHHOLDING OR WITHDRAWING LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENT FROM ELDERLY, INSTITUTIONALIZED RESIDENTS › Section 17:41-2.2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter,
				  shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Advanced practice nurse" means a person certified by the New
				  Jersey Board of Nursing in accordance with the Advanced Practice Nurse
				  Certification Act ("APNCA"),
				  45:11-45 et seq. All orders
				  written by an advanced practice nurse pursuant to this subchapter must be done
				  in accordance with the procedures established by the APNCA and implementing
				  regulations.
"Capacity to make a healthcare decision" means the ability
				  to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a particular
				  healthcare decision, including the resident's diagnosis and prognosis, the
				  burdens, benefits and risks associated with the decision and alternatives to
				  the decision, and having the ability to make judgments about that
				  information.
"Family member" shall mean, in order of priority, the
				  resident's spouse in a marriage or a civil union, parents, children, or next of
				  kin, if any.
"Fully informed" means being informed in language
				  understandable to the resident of diagnosis and prognosis, the benefits,
				  burdens and risks of the proposed treatment or non-treatment and its
				  alternatives.
"Incapacitated" means lacking the capacity to make health
				  care decisions, as defined above.
"Life-sustaining treatment" means any medical intervention
				  that is administered to a resident in order to prolong life and delay death,
				  including, but not limited to, medication, artificial nutrition, artificial
				  hydration, and artificial respiration.
"Medically indicated treatment" means treatment that will
				  improve the medical condition of the resident or is necessary to provide
				  palliative care to the resident.
"Ombudsperson" means the Ombudsperson for the
				  Institutionalized Elderly, or that person's designee.
"Palliative care" means medical, surgical or other
				  interventions designed to alleviate suffering and discomfort, but not to
				  cure.
"Permanently unconscious" is a medical diagnosis, which
				  means that a person is not likely to return to a state of consciousness. For
				  purposes of this subchapter, this term includes a medical diagnosis of
				  "persistent vegetative state."
"Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form"
				  means a standardized form created under the authority of the New Jersey
				  Department of Health,
26:2H-129
et
				  seq., that sets forth a person's wishes and preferences regarding
				  life-sustaining treatment and is signed and dated by the person's attending
				  physician or advanced practice nurse thereby converting the person's wishes and
				  preferences into a medical order.
"Regional Long-Term Care Ethics Committee" means a group
				  composed of healthcare and community members, who have participated in an
				  Ombudsperson-approved training course, and acting under the auspices and with
				  the approval of the Ombudsperson, provides education, policy development, and
				  case consultation services to its facilities, residents, their family members,
				  surrogate decision makers, managed care organizations representative, and
				  managed care organizations case manager.
"Surrogate decision-maker" means a guardian, a close and
				  caring family member, a domestic partner, as defined in
				  section
				  3 of
				  P.L.
				  2003, c. 246
				  (26:8A-3 ) or a person designated
				  by the resident, including a health care representative or health care proxy
				  appointed pursuant to
				  26:2H-58, who is willing and able
				  to make a decision to withhold or to withdraw life-sustaining treatment on
				  behalf of the resident.