Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 54.1 > Subtitle III > Chapter 29 > Article 8 - Health Care Decisions Act

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Advance directive: means (i) a witnessed written document, voluntarily executed by the declarant in accordance with the requirements of § 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agent: means an adult appointed by the declarant under an advance directive, executed or made in accordance with the provisions of § 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Associate-degree-granting: means that an associate degree is the most advanced degree that is granted. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Attending physician: means the primary physician who has responsibility for the health care of the patient. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Baccalaureate: means that bachelor's degrees or more advanced degrees, or both, are granted. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Board: means the Board of Medicine. See Virginia Code 54.1-2900
• Capacity reviewer: means a licensed physician or clinical psychologist who is qualified by training or experience to assess whether a person is capable or incapable of making an informed decision. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Chief executive officer: includes the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, the Chancellor of the University of Virginia's College at Wise, the Superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, and the president of each other public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• College degree: means an undergraduate degree from an accredited associate-degree-granting or baccalaureate (i) public institution of higher education or (ii) private institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Comprehensive community college: means an associate-degree-granting public institution of higher education governed by the State Board that offers instruction in one or more of the following fields:

  1. See Virginia Code 23.1-100

• Consultation: means communicating data and information, exchanging clinical observations and assessments, accessing and assessing additional resources and expertise, problem-solving, and arranging for referrals, testing, or studies. See Virginia Code 54.1-2900
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Cost of education: means the operating funds necessary during a fiscal year to provide educational and general services, other than research and public service, to students attending an institution in that fiscal year. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Council: means the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Declarant: means an adult who makes an advance directive, as defined in this article, while capable of making and communicating an informed decision. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order: means a written physician's order issued pursuant to § 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Educational and general fees: means fees over and above tuition charged for certain educational and general services. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Educational and general services: means services associated with instruction, academic support, student services, institutional support, research, public service, or operation and maintenance of physical plant, with adjustments based on particular state policies relating to specific institutional conditions. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• 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.
• Fiscal year: means the period from July 1 of one calendar year to June 30 of the next calendar year. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing board: includes the State Board and the board of visitors of each baccalaureate public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• 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: means the furnishing of services to any individual for the purpose of preventing, alleviating, curing, or healing human illness, injury or physical disability, including but not limited to, medications; surgery; blood transfusions; chemotherapy; radiation therapy; admission to a hospital, nursing home, assisted living facility, or other health care facility; psychiatric or other mental health treatment; and life-prolonging procedures and palliative care. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Incapable of making an informed decision: means the inability of an adult patient, because of mental illness, intellectual disability, or any other mental or physical disorder that precludes communication or impairs judgment, to make an informed decision about providing, continuing, withholding or withdrawing a specific health care treatment or course of treatment because he is unable to understand the nature, extent or probable consequences of the proposed health care decision, or to make a rational evaluation of the risks and benefits of alternatives to that decision. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• 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.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Life-prolonging procedure: means any medical procedure, treatment or intervention which (i) utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, restore or supplant a spontaneous vital function, or is otherwise of such a nature as to afford a patient no reasonable expectation of recovery from a terminal condition and (ii) when applied to a patient in a terminal condition, would serve only to prolong the dying process. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Local education agency: means a public authority legally constituted by a state as an administrative agency to provide control of and direction for kindergarten through grade 12 public schools. See Virginia Code 22.1-370
• 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.
• 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.
• Patient care consulting committee: means a committee duly organized by a facility licensed to provide health care under Title 32. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Peer institutions: means those institutions determined by the Council, in consultation with a public institution of higher education, the Secretary of Education or his designee, the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget or his designee, and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations or their designees, to be most similar to such public institution of higher education and provide a fair comparison in determining appropriate and competitive faculty salaries for such public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Persistent vegetative state: means a condition caused by injury, disease or illness in which a patient has suffered a loss of consciousness, with no behavioral evidence of self-awareness or awareness of surroundings in a learned manner, other than reflex activity of muscles and nerves for low level conditioned response, and from which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, there can be no recovery. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of Virginia or in the jurisdiction where the health care is to be rendered or withheld. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• Physician assistant: means a health care professional who has met the requirements of the Board for licensure as a physician assistant. See Virginia Code 54.1-2900
• Private institution of higher education: includes each nonprofit private institution of higher education and proprietary private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Public institution of higher education: includes the System as a whole and each associate-degree-granting and baccalaureate public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Sending state: means the state from which a child of a federal employee serving under orders pursuant to Title 22 or 50 of the United States Code is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought. See Virginia Code 22.1-370
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• State: means one of 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U. See Virginia Code 22.1-370
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• STEM: means science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• Student: means the child of a federal employee serving under orders pursuant to Title 22 or 50 of the United States Code and who is formally enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12. See Virginia Code 22.1-370
• Student: means a full-time or part-time undergraduate, graduate, or professional student attending a public institution of higher education and enrolled in a degree program. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• student enrollment: means the number of full-time equivalent students. See Virginia Code 23.1-300
• System: means the Virginia Community College System. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Terminal condition: means a condition caused by injury, disease or illness from which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability a patient cannot recover and (i) the patient's death is imminent or (ii) the patient is in a persistent vegetative state. See Virginia Code 54.1-2982
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Virginia student: means any student who has established domicile in the Commonwealth pursuant to § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-100