Texas Administrative Code › Title 26 - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › Part 1 - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION › Chapter 509 - FREESTANDING EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE FACILITIES › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 509.2 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
					 have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise.
(1) Act--Texas Health and
				  Safety Code Chapter 254, titled Freestanding Emergency Medical Care
				  Facilities.
(2) Action plan--A
				  written document that includes specific measures to correct identified problems
				  or areas of concern; identifies strategies for implementing system
				  improvements; and includes outcome measures to indicate the effectiveness of
				  system improvements in reducing, controlling, or eliminating identified problem
				  areas.
(3) Administrator--A person
				  who is a physician, is a registered nurse, has a baccalaureate or postgraduate
				  degree in administration or a health-related field, or has one year of
				  administrative experience in a health-care setting.
(4) Advanced practice registered nurse
				  (APRN)--A registered nurse authorized by the Texas Board of Nursing to practice
				  as an advanced practice registered nurse in Texas. The term includes a nurse
				  practitioner, nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, and clinical nurse specialist.
				  The term is synonymous with "advanced nurse practitioner."
(5) Adverse event--An event that results in
				  unintended harm to the patient by an act of commission or omission rather than
				  by the underlying disease or condition of the patient.
(6) Applicant--A person who seeks a
				  freestanding emergency medical care facility license from the Texas Health and
				  Human Services Commission (HHSC) and who is legally responsible for operation
				  of the freestanding emergency medical care facility, whether by lease or
				  ownership.
(7) Certified registered
				  nurse anesthetist (CRNA)--A registered nurse who has current certification from
				  the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists and is currently authorized
				  to practice as an advanced practice registered nurse by the Texas Board of
				  Nursing.
(8) Change of
				  ownership--Change in the person legally responsible for operation of the
				  facility, whether by lease or by ownership.
(9) Designated provider--A provider of health
				  care services selected by a health maintenance organization, a self-insured
				  business corporation, a beneficial society, the Veterans Administration,
				  TRICARE, a business corporation, an employee organization, a county, a public
				  hospital, a hospital district, or any other entity to provide health care
				  services to a patient with whom the entity has a contractual, statutory, or
				  regulatory relationship that creates an obligation for the entity to provide
				  the services to the patient.
(10)
				  Disposal--Discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing
				  any solid waste or hazardous waste (containerized or uncontainerized) into or
				  on any land or water so that solid waste or hazardous waste, or any constituent
				  thereof, may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharge into
				  any waters, including groundwaters.
(11) Emergency care--Health care services
				  provided in a freestanding emergency medical care facility to evaluate and
				  stabilize medical conditions of a recent onset and severity, including severe
				  pain, that would lead a prudent layperson possessing an average knowledge of
				  medicine and health to believe that the person's condition, sickness, or injury
				  is of such a nature that failure to get immediate medical care could result in:
(A) placing the person's health in serious
				  jeopardy;
(B) serious impairment to
				  bodily functions;
(C) serious
				  dysfunction of a bodily organ or part;
(D) serious disfigurement; or
(E) in the case of a pregnant woman, serious
				  jeopardy to the health of the woman or fetus.