Pennsylvania Code › Title 28 - HEALTH AND SAFETY › Part III - Prevention of Diseases › Chapter 29 - MISCELLANEOUS HEALTH PROVISIONS › Subchapter D - AMBULATORY GYNECOLOGICAL SURGERY IN HOSPITALS AND CLINICS › Section 29.31 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this
					 subchapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise:
Abortion
-The use of any means to terminate
					 the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the
					 termination by those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of
					 the unborn child except that, for the purposes of this chapter, abortion shall
					 not mean the use of an intrauterine device or birth control pill to inhibit or
					 prevent ovulations, fertilization, or the implantation of a fertilized ovum
					 within the uterus.
Complication
-Includes but is not limited
					 to hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, and
					 retained products. The Department may further define complication.
Department
-The Department of Health of
					 the Commonwealth.
Facility or medical facility
-Any public or
					 private hospital, clinic, center, medical school, medical training institution,
					 health care facility, physician's office, infirmary, dispensary, ambulatory
					 surgical treatment center, or other institution or location wherein medical
					 care is provided to any person and which performs abortions on an elective
					 basis.
First trimester
-The first 12 weeks of
					 gestation.
Freestanding facility (clinic)
-A facility
					 owned and operated by an individual, group of individuals, health agency, or
					 corporation and meeting all recommendations specified in this subchapter except
					 ownership and operation by a hospital.
Gestational age
-What, in the judgment of
					 the attending physician, will with reasonable probability be the gestational
					 age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be
					 performed.
Hospital
-An institution offering inpatient
					 services for medical, surgical, obstetrical, pediatric, and other care of
					 persons as specified in Part IV, Subpart B (relating to general and special
					 hospitals).
Hospital clinic
-An outpatient clinic owned
					 and operated by a licensed hospital and located either within or immediately
					 adjacent to the hospital building, with appropriate equipment and adequate
					 staff for safe abortions. The diagnostic and treatment services of the hospital
					 required for management of any emergency must be readily accessible. The
					 medical staff and practices of this type of facility shall be in compliance
					 with Commonwealth hospital licensure requirements, and such other requirements
					 as may be appropriate, such as the medical staff by-laws, rules and
					 regulations, and other patient care policies adopted by the hospital.
					 Physicians performing abortions in a hospital clinic should be either active
					 members of the medical staff, or physicians employed by the hospital, whose
					 credentials have been reviewed and approved by the Chairman, Department of
					 Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the hospital Medical Staff Credentials
					 Committee.
In vitro fertilization
-The purposeful
					 fertilization of a human ovum outside the body of a living human female.
Licensed practical nurse
-A person licensed
					 to practice practical nursing under the Practical Nurse Law (63 P. S.
					 §§
											651-667).
Medical emergency
-The condition which, on
					 the basis of the physician's best clinical judgment, so complicates a pregnancy
					 as to necessitate the immediate abortion of same to avert the death of the
					 mother or for which a 24-hour delay will create grave peril of immediate and
					 irreversible loss of major bodily function.
Medical personnel
-Any nurse, nurse's
					 aide, medical school student, health care professional, or any other person who
					 furnishes or assists in the furnishing of medical care.
Physician
-Any person licensed to practice
					 medicine in this Commonwealth.
Pregnancy
-That female reproduction
					 condition caused by and commencing with fertilization.
Registered nurse
-A person licensed to
					 practice professional nursing under The Professional Nursing Law (63 P. S.
					 §§
											211-225).
Surgical unit
-A regularly staffed and
					 equipped operating room with general anesthesia capability.
Unborn child
-A human being from
					 fertilization until birth and includes a fetus.
Viability
-That stage of fetal development
					 when, in the judgment of the physician based on the particular facts of the
					 case before him and in light of the most advanced medical technology and
					 information available to him, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained
					 survival of the unborn child outside the body of the mother, with or without
					 artificial support.