Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 36 > Chapter 4 - Health Care Institutions

• Abortion: means the use of any means with the intent to terminate a woman's pregnancy for reasons other than to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after a live birth, to terminate an ectopic pregnancy or to remove a dead fetus. See Arizona Laws 36-449.01
• Abortion clinic: means a facility, other than a hospital, in which five or more first trimester abortions in any month or any second or third trimester abortions are performed. See Arizona Laws 36-449.01
• Accredited health care institution: means a health care institution, other than a hospital, that is currently accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation organization. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Accredited hospital: means a hospital that is currently accredited by a nationally recognized organization on hospital accreditation. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Adult behavioral health therapeutic home: means a residence for individuals who are at least eighteen years of age, have behavioral health issues and need behavioral health services that does all of the following for those individuals:

  (a) Provides room and board. See Arizona Laws 36-401

• Adult day health services: means a program that provides planned care supervision and activities, personal care, personal living skills training, meals and health monitoring in a group setting during a portion of a continuous twenty-four-hour period. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Adult foster care home: means a residential setting that provides room and board and adult foster care services for at least one and not more than four adults who are participants in the Arizona long-term care system pursuant to chapter 29, article 2 of this title or contracts for services with the United States department of veterans affairs and in which the sponsor or the manager resides with the residents and integrates the residents who are receiving adult foster care into that person's family. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Adult foster care services: means supervision, assistance with eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, self-medication and other routines of daily living or services authorized by rules adopted pursuant to section 36-405 and section 36-2939, subsection C. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assisted living center: means an assisted living facility that provides resident rooms or residential units to eleven or more residents. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Assisted living facility: means a residential care institution, including an adult foster care home, that provides or contracts to provide supervisory care services, personal care services or directed care services on a continuous basis. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Assisted living facility manager: means a person who has responsibility for administering or managing an assisted living facility, whether or not that person has an ownership interest in the institution and whether or not the person's functions and duties are shared with others. See Arizona Laws 36-446
• Assisted living facility training program: includes :

  (a) Training that is required for assisted living facility manager certification. See Arizona Laws 36-446

• Assisted living home: means an assisted living facility that provides resident rooms to ten or fewer residents. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Associated licensed provider: means one or more licensed outpatient treatment centers or exempt outpatient treatment centers or one or more licensed counseling facilities that share common areas pursuant to a written agreement with a collaborating outpatient treatment center and that are liable and responsible for the treatment areas that are used by the respective associated licensed provider pursuant to written policies. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Behavioral health services: means services that pertain to mental health and substance use disorders and that are either:

  (a) Performed by or under the supervision of a professional who is licensed pursuant to title 32 and whose scope of practice allows the professional to provide these services. See Arizona Laws 36-401

• Board: means the board of examiners of nursing care institution administrators and assisted living facility managers. See Arizona Laws 36-446
• Bond: means any bond issued pursuant to this article, including any tax secured bond. See Arizona Laws 9-521
• Collaborating outpatient treatment center: means a licensed outpatient treatment center or an exempt outpatient treatment center that has a written agreement with one or more outpatient treatment centers or exempt health care providers or licensed counseling facilities that requires the collaborating outpatient treatment center to be liable and responsible pursuant to written policies for all common areas that one or more colocators use. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Colocator: means an exempt health care provider, an exempt outpatient treatment center or a governing authority operating as an outpatient treatment center or a licensed counseling facility that may share common areas and nontreatment personnel with another colocator pursuant to an agreement as prescribed in this article. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Construction: means building, erecting, fabricating or installing a health care institution. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Continuous: means available at all times without cessation, break or interruption. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controlling person: means a person who:

  (a) Through ownership, has the power to vote at least ten percent of the outstanding voting securities. See Arizona Laws 36-401

• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the department of health services. See Arizona Laws 36-446
• Department: means the department of health services. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Direct owner: means a person that has an ownership or control interest in a health care institution totaling fifty-one percent or more. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Directed care services: means programs and services, including supervisory and personal care services, that are provided to persons who are incapable of recognizing danger, summoning assistance, expressing need or making basic care decisions. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Direction: means authoritative policy or procedural guidance to accomplish a function or activity. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Director: means the director of the department of health services. See Arizona Laws 36-446
• Director: means the director of the department of health services. See Arizona Laws 36-449.01
• Director: means the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Emergency health care services: means treatment for a medical or behavioral health condition, including labor and delivery, that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, such that a prudent layperson who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following:

  (a) Placing the patient's health, including mental health, in serious jeopardy. See Arizona Laws 36-439

• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Exempt health care provider: means a health care provider who is licensed pursuant to title 32, who holds an active license and whose private office or clinic is exempt from licensure pursuant to section 36-402, subsection A, paragraph 3. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Exempt outpatient treatment center: means a facility with the same direct owner or indirect owner as a hospital that is licensed pursuant to this chapter, that does not have inpatient beds, that provides physical health services or behavioral health services for the diagnosis and treatment of patients and that is exempt from licensure pursuant to section 36-402, subsection A, paragraph 12. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Facilities: means buildings that are used by a health care institution for providing any of the types of services as defined in this chapter. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: A government corporation that insures the deposits of all national and state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. ^{Source: OCC}
• Felony involving violence or financial fraud: means any of the following offenses:

  (a) Sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult. See Arizona Laws 36-446

• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Governing authority: means the individual, agency, partners, group or corporation, whether appointed, elected or otherwise designated, in which the ultimate responsibility and authority for the conduct of the health care institution are vested. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Governing body: means the board, commission or other body having charge of the financial affairs of a municipality. See Arizona Laws 9-521
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Health care institution: means every place, institution, building or agency, whether organized for profit or not, that provides facilities with medical services, nursing services, behavioral health services, health screening services, other health-related services, supervisory care services, personal care services or directed care services and includes home health agencies as defined in section 36-151, outdoor behavioral health care programs and hospice service agencies. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Health screening services: means the acquisition, analysis and delivery of health-related data of individuals to aid in determining the need for medical services. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Health-related services: means services, other than medical, that pertain to general supervision, protective, preventive and personal care services, supervisory care services or directed care services. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Hospice: means a hospice service agency or the provision of hospice services in an inpatient facility. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Hospice service: means a program of palliative and supportive care for terminally ill persons and their families or caregivers. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensed capacity: means the total number of persons for whom the health care institution is authorized by the department to provide services as required pursuant to this chapter if the person is expected to stay in the health care institution for more than twenty-four hours. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Medical services: means the services that pertain to medical care and that are performed at the direction of a physician on behalf of patients by physicians, dentists, nurses and other professional and technical personnel. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Medication abortion: means the use of any medication, drug or other substance that is intended to cause or induce an abortion. See Arizona Laws 36-449.01
• Minor: means a person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Modification: means the substantial improvement, enlargement, reduction or alteration of or other change in a health care institution. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Moral turpitude: means an offense, whether a misdemeanor or felony, that is related to extortion, burglary, larceny, bribery, embezzlement, robbery, racketeering, money laundering, forgery, fraud, murder, voluntary manslaughter or a sexual offense that requires the individual to register pursuant to section 13-3821. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Municipality: means any incorporated city or town. See Arizona Laws 9-521
• Nonproprietary institution: means any health care institution that is organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, or that is operated by the state or any political subdivision of the state. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Nontreatment personnel: means employees, agents, students, interns or independent contractors who provide services to an outpatient treatment center colocator that do not entail medical, nursing or behavioral health assessment or treatment. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Nursing care institution: means a health care institution that provides inpatient beds or resident beds and nursing services to persons who need continuous nursing services but who do not require hospital care or direct daily care from a physician. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• nursing care institution administrator: means a person who is charged with the general administration of a nursing care institution, whether or not that person has an ownership interest in the institution and whether or not the person's functions and duties are shared with others. See Arizona Laws 36-446
• Nursing services: means those services that pertain to the curative, restorative and preventive aspects of nursing care and that are performed at the direction of a physician by or under the supervision of a registered nurse licensed in this state. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Nursing-supported group home: means a health care institution that is a community residential setting as defined in section 36-551 for not more than six persons with developmental disabilities, that is operated by a service provider under contract with the department of economic security and that provides room and board, daily habilitation and continuous nursing support and intervention. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Organized medical staff: means a formal organization of physicians, and dentists if appropriate, with the delegated authority and responsibility to maintain proper standards of medical care and to plan for continued betterment of that care. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Outdoor behavioral health care program: means an agency that provides behavioral health services in an outdoor environment as an alternative to behavioral health services that are provided in a health care institution with facilities. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Personal care services: means assistance with activities of daily living that can be performed by persons without professional skills or professional training and includes the coordination or provision of intermittent nursing services and the administration of medications and treatments by a nurse who is licensed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 15 or as otherwise provided by law. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Physician: means any person who is licensed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 13 or 17. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Plea agreement: An arrangement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for special considerations. ^Source:
• Population: means the population according to the most recent United States decennial census. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Professional standards of practice: means practicing within the scope of licensure. See Arizona Laws 36-450
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Recidivism reduction services: means services that are delivered by an adult residential care institution to its residents to encourage lawful behavior and to discourage or prevent residents who are suspected of, charged with or convicted of one or more criminal offenses, or whose mental health and substance use can be reasonably expected to place them at risk for the future threat of prosecution, diversion or incarceration, from engaging in future unlawful behavior. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Recidivism reduction staff: means a person who provides recidivism reduction services. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Recovery care center: means a health care institution or subdivision of a health care institution that provides medical and nursing services limited to recovery care services. See Arizona Laws 36-448.51
• Recovery care services: means postsurgical and postdiagnostic medical and nursing services provided to patients for whom, in the opinion of the attending physician, it is reasonable to expect an uncomplicated recovery. See Arizona Laws 36-448.51
• resident beds: means accommodations with supporting services, such as food, laundry and housekeeping, for patients or residents who generally stay in excess of twenty-four hours. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Residential care institution: means a health care institution other than a hospital or a nursing care institution that provides resident beds or residential units, supervisory care services, personal care services, behavioral health services, directed care services or health-related services for persons who do not need continuous nursing services. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Retaliatory action: means termination of or other adverse action against a health professional's employment taken by a health care institution because the professional has made a report pursuant to this article. See Arizona Laws 36-450
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Substantial compliance: means that the nature or number of violations revealed by any type of inspection or investigation of a health care institution does not pose a direct risk to the life, health or safety of patients or residents. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Supervision: means directly overseeing and inspecting the act of accomplishing a function or activity. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Supervisory care services: means general supervision, including daily awareness of resident functioning and continuing needs, the ability to intervene in a crisis and assistance in self-administering prescribed medications. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Temporary license: means a license that is issued by the department to operate a class or subclass of a health care institution at a specific location and that is valid until an initial licensing inspection. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Testify: includes every manner of oral statement under oath or affirmation. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Treatment areas: means portions of licensed outpatient treatment center premises that are used for the provision of health care assessment and treatment of patients. See Arizona Laws 36-439
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Unprofessional conduct: includes :

  (a) Dishonesty, fraud, incompetency or gross negligence in performing administrative duties. See Arizona Laws 36-446

• Unscheduled medical services: means medically necessary periodic health care services that are unanticipated or cannot reasonably be anticipated and that require medical evaluation or treatment before the next business day. See Arizona Laws 36-401
• Utility undertaking: means any one or combination of the following:

  (a) Electric light or power, water, storm water, sewer, gas, common carrier of passengers, garbage, or rubbish plant or system, including but not limited to disposal, treatment or reduction plants, buildings, incinerators, dams and reservoirs. See Arizona Laws 9-521

• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215