Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 23-17.20 - Healthcare Facilities Staffing

• 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.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Employee: means a nurse licensed pursuant to chapter 5-34, and a certified nurse assistant registered pursuant to chapter 23-17. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17.20-2
• Employer: means a person, partnership, association, corporation or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of a health care facility;

  (3)  "Health care facility" means any private, public or state hospital;

  (4)  "On-call time" means time spent by an employee who is not working on the premises of the place of employment but who is compensated for availability or who, as a condition of employment, has agreed to be available to return to the premises of the place of employment on short notice if the need arises;

  (5)  "Reasonable efforts" means that the employer shall:

  (i)  Seek persons who volunteer to work extra time from all available qualified staff who are working at the time of the unforeseeable emergent circumstance;

  (ii)  Contact all qualified employees who have made themselves available to work extra time; and

  (iii)  Seek the use of per diem staff;

  (6)  "Regular hourly wage" means the amount that an employee is regularly paid for each hour of work as determined by dividing the total hours of work during the week into the employee's total earnings for the week, exclusive of pay for overtime work;

  (7)  "Unforeseeable emergent circumstance" means an unpredictable occurrence relating to health care delivery that requires immediate action, and which shall include a major power outage, a public health emergency, an irregular increase in patient census, or an irregular increase in the number of employees not reporting for predetermined scheduled work shifts. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17.20-2

• 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.
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.