Pennsylvania Code › Title 28 - HEALTH AND SAFETY › Part VII - Emergency Medical Services › Subpart B - Matters Anciliary to Emergency Medical Services Systems › Chapter 1051 - OUT-OF-HOSPITAL DO-NOT-RECUSCITATE ORDERS › GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 1051.2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
						have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
						otherwise:
Advance directive
-A directive for
						health care in a declaration issued under 20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 54 (relating to
						the Advance Directive for Health Care Act).
Attending physician
-A physician who has
						primary responsibility for the medical care and treatment of a patient. A
						patient may have more than one attending physician.
CPR-Cardiopulmonary
						resuscitation
-Cardiac compression, invasive airway techniques,
						artificial ventilation, defibrillation and other related procedures used to
						resuscitate a patient or to prolong the life of a patient.
DNR
-Do not resuscitate.
Declarant
-As defined in
						20 Pa.C.S. §
												5403
						(relating to definitions).
Declaration
-As defined in
						20 Pa.C.S. §
												5403.
Department
-The Department of Health of
						the Commonwealth.
EMS personnel-Emergency medical services
						personnel
-Prehospital personnel and individuals given good Samaritan
						civil immunity protection when using an automated external defibrillator under
						42 Pa.C.S. §
												8331.2
						(relating to good Samaritan civil immunity for use of automated external
						defibrillators).
EMS provider-Emergency medical services
						provider
-EMS personnel, a medical command physician and, as defined in
						§
											1001.2 (relating to definitions),
						an advance life support service medical director, medical command facility
						medical director, medical command facility, ambulance service and quick
						response service.
Health care provider
-A person who is
						licensed, certified or otherwise authorized to administer health care in the
						ordinary course of a business or practice of a profession. The term includes
						EMS providers.
Invasive airway technique
-Any advanced
						airway technique, including endotracheal intubation.
Life-sustaining treatment
-
(i) A medical procedure or intervention that,
					 when administered to a patient, will serve only to prolong the process of dying
					 or to maintain the patient in a state of permanent unconsciousness.
(ii) The term includes nutrition and
					 hydration administered by gastric tube or intravenously or any other artificial
					 or invasive means if the order of the patient so specifically provides.
Medical command physician
-A physician
						who is approved by a regional emergency medical services council to provide
						medical command.
Out-of-hospital DNR bracelet
-A bracelet
						which signifies that an out-of-hospital DNR order has been issued.
Out-of-hospital DNR necklace
-A necklace
						which signifies that an out-of-hospital DNR order has been issued.
Out-of-hospital DNR order
-A written
						order, the form for which is supplied by the Department or its designee under
						this chapter, that is issued by an attending physician and directs EMS
						providers to withhold CPR from the patient in the event of cardiac or
						respiratory arrest.
Out-of-hospital DNR patient
-A patient
						for whom an attending physician has issued an out-of-hospital DNR order.
Patient
-One of the following:
(i) An individual who is in a terminal
					 condition.
(ii) A declarant whose
					 declaration has become operative under
					 20 Pa.C.S. §
												5405(2) (relating to when
					 declaration becomes operative) and which provides that CPR may not be provided
					 in the event of the declarant's cardiac or respiratory arrest if the declarant
					 becomes permanently unconscious, or designates a surrogate to make that
					 decision under those circumstances.
Permanently unconscious
-
(i) A medical condition that has been
					 diagnosed in accordance with currently accepted medical standards and with
					 reasonable medical certainty as total and irreversible loss of consciousness
					 and capacity for interaction with the environment.
(ii) The term includes, without limitation, a
					 persistent vegetative state or irreversible coma.
Person
-An individual, corporation,
						partnership, association or Federal, State or local government or governmental
						agency.
Physician
-An individual who has a
						currently registered license to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine in
						this Commonwealth.
Prehospital personnel
-The term includes
						any of the following prehospital practitioners:
(i) Ambulance attendants.
(ii) First responders.
(iii) Emergency medical technicians
					 (EMTs).
(iv)
					 EMT-paramedics.
(v) Prehospital
					 registered nurses.
(vi) Health
					 professional physicians.
Surrogate
-An individual who has, or
						individuals who collectively have, legal authority to request an
						out-of-hospital DNR order for another individual or to revoke that
						order.
Terminal condition
-An incurable and
						irreversible medical condition in an advanced state caused by injury, disease
						or physical illness which will, in the opinion of the attending physician, to a
						reasonable degree of medical certainty, result in death regardless of the
						continued application of life-sustaining treatment.