§ 2994-a. Definitions. The following words or phrases, used in this
article, shall have the following meanings, unless the context otherwise
requires:

1. "Adult" means any person who is eighteen years of age or older or
has married.

2. "Attending practitioner" means a physician, nurse practitioner or
physician assistant, selected by or assigned to a patient pursuant to
hospital policy, who has primary responsibility for the treatment and
care of the patient. Where more than one physician, nurse practitioner
or physician assistant shares such responsibility, or where a physician,
nurse practitioner or physician assistant is acting on the attending
practitioner's behalf, any such physician, nurse practitioner or
physician assistant may act as an attending practitioner pursuant to
this article.

2-a. "Attending nurse practitioner" means a nurse practitioner,
selected by or assigned to a patient pursuant to hospital policy, who
has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient.
Where more than one physician and/or nurse practitioner shares such
responsibility, or where a physician or nurse practitioner is acting on
the attending physician's or attending nurse practitioner's behalf, any
such physician or nurse practitioner may act as an attending physician
or attending nurse practitioner pursuant to this article.

3. "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation" means measures, as specified in
regulations promulgated by the commissioner, to restore cardiac function
or to support ventilation in the event of a cardiac or respiratory
arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation shall not include measures to
improve ventilation and cardiac function in the absence of an arrest.

4. "Close friend" means any person, eighteen years of age or older,
who is a close friend of the patient, or a relative of the patient
(other than a spouse, adult child, parent, brother or sister), who has
maintained such regular contact with the patient as to be familiar with
the patient's activities, health, and religious or moral beliefs, and
who presents a signed statement to that effect to the attending
practitioner.

5. "Decision-making capacity" means the ability to understand and
appreciate the nature and consequences of proposed health care,
including the benefits and risks of and alternatives to proposed health
care, and to reach an informed decision.

5-a. "Decisions regarding hospice care" means the decision to enroll
or disenroll in hospice, and consent to the hospice plan of care and
modifications to that plan.

6. "Developmental disability" means a developmental disability as
defined in subdivision twenty-two of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene
law.

7. "Domestic partner" means a person who, with respect to another
person:

(a) is formally a party in a domestic partnership or similar
relationship with the other person, entered into pursuant to the laws of
the United States or of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, or
registered as the domestic partner of the other person with any registry
maintained by the employer of either party or any state, municipality,
or foreign jurisdiction; or

(b) is formally recognized as a beneficiary or covered person under
the other person's employment benefits or health insurance; or

(c) is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person for
support, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances indicating a
mutual intent to be domestic partners including but not limited to:
common ownership or joint leasing of real or personal property; common
householding, shared income or shared expenses; children in common;
signs of intent to marry or become domestic partners under paragraph (a)
or (b) of this subdivision; or the length of the personal relationship
of the persons.

Each party to a domestic partnership shall be considered to be the
domestic partner of the other party. "Domestic partner" shall not
include a person who is related to the other person by blood in a manner
that would bar marriage to the other person in New York state. "Domestic
partner" also shall not include any person who is less than eighteen
years of age or who is the adopted child of the other person or who is
related by blood in a manner that would bar marriage in New York state
to a person who is the lawful spouse of the other person.

8. "Emancipated minor patient" means a minor patient who is the parent
of a child, or who is sixteen years of age or older and living
independently from his or her parents or guardian.

9. "Ethics review committee" means the interdisciplinary committee
established in accordance with the requirements of section twenty-nine
hundred ninety-four-m of this article.

10. "General hospital" means a general hospital as defined in
subdivision ten of section twenty-eight hundred one of this chapter
excluding a ward, wing, unit or other part of a general hospital
operated for the purpose of providing services for persons with mental
illness pursuant to an operating certificate issued by the commissioner
of mental health.

11. "Guardian of a minor" or "guardian" means a health care guardian
or a legal guardian of the person of a minor.

12. "Health care" means any treatment, service, or procedure to
diagnose or treat an individual's physical or mental condition.
Providing nutrition or hydration orally, without reliance on medical
treatment, is not health care under this article and is not subject to
this article.

13. "Health care agent" means a health care agent designated by an
adult pursuant to article twenty-nine-C of this chapter.

14. "Health care decision" means any decision to consent or refuse to
consent to health care.

15. "Health care guardian" means an individual appointed by a court,
pursuant to subdivision four of section twenty-nine hundred
ninety-four-r of this article, as the guardian of a minor patient solely
for the purpose of deciding about life-sustaining treatment pursuant to
this article.

16. "Health care provider" means an individual or facility licensed,
certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to administer
health care in the ordinary course of business or professional practice.

17. "Health or social service practitioner" means a registered
professional nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, physician assistant,
psychologist or licensed clinical social worker, licensed or certified
pursuant to the education law acting within his or her scope of
practice.

17-a. "Hospice" means a hospice as defined in article forty of this
chapter, without regard to where the hospice care is provided.

18. "Hospital" means a general hospital, a residential health care
facility, or hospice.

19. "Life-sustaining treatment" means any medical treatment or
procedure without which the patient will die within a relatively short
time, as determined by an attending physician to a reasonable degree of
medical certainty. For the purpose of this article, cardiopulmonary
resuscitation is presumed to be life-sustaining treatment without the
necessity of a determination by an attending physician.

20. "Mental hygiene facility" means a facility operated or licensed by
the office of mental health or the office for people with developmental
disabilities as defined in subdivision six of section 1.03 of the mental
hygiene law.

21. "Mental illness" means a mental illness as defined in subdivision
twenty of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law, and does not include
dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, or other disorders related to
dementia.

22. "Minor" means any person who is not an adult.

22-a. "Nurse practitioner" means a nurse practitioner certified
pursuant to section sixty-nine hundred ten of the education law who is
practicing in accordance with subdivision three of section sixty-nine
hundred two of the education law.

23. "Order not to resuscitate" means an order not to attempt
cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the event a patient suffers cardiac or
respiratory arrest.

24. "Parent", for the purpose of a health care decision about a minor
patient, means a parent who has custody of, or who has maintained
substantial and continuous contact with, the minor patient.

25. "Patient" means a person admitted to a hospital.

26. "Person connected with the case" means the patient, any person on
the surrogate list, a parent or guardian of a minor patient, the
hospital administrator, an attending physician, any other health or
social services practitioner who is or has been directly involved in the
patient's care, and any duly authorized state agency, including the
facility director or regional director for a patient transferred from a
mental hygiene facility and the facility director for a patient
transferred from a correctional facility.

27. "Reasonably available" means that a person to be contacted can be
contacted with diligent efforts by an attending physician, another
person acting on behalf of an attending physician, or the hospital.

28. "Residential health care facility" means a residential health care
facility as defined in subdivision three of section twenty-eight hundred
one of this chapter.

29. "Surrogate" means the person selected to make a health care
decision on behalf of a patient pursuant to section twenty-nine hundred
ninety-four-d of this article.

30. "Surrogate list" means the list set forth in subdivision one of
section twenty-nine hundred ninety-four-d of this article.