Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 11, August 30, 2024
(1) Legal
Authority for Adoption of Rules. The following rules for Freestanding Emergency
Departments are adopted by the Alabama State Board of Health pursuant to §
22-21-20, et seq.,
Code of Ala. 1975.
(2) Definitions.
(a) Board or State Board of Health means the
Alabama State Board of Health.
(b)
Department means the Alabama Department of Public Health.
(c) Freestanding Emergency Department (FED)
means a separately licensed, provider-based department of a hospital licensed
by the Board which is separated from the parent hospital's main campus by not
more than 35 miles driving distance by automobile. An FED operates and is held
out to the public as a facility that receives patients without requiring an
appointment and provides rapid and varied emergency treatment and stabilization
for conditions threatening to life and limb, and sudden acute medical
conditions.
(d) Governing Authority
means owner(s), hospital association, county hospital board, board of
directors, board of governors, board of trustees, or any other comparable
designation of a body duly organized and constituted for the purpose of owning,
acquiring, constructing, equipping, operating, and maintaining a hospital, and
exercising control over the affairs of said hospital.
(e) Hospital means a health institution
licensed in Alabama by the Board which is planned, organized, and maintained
pursuant to the Board's Rules for Hospitals, Chapter 420-5-7, Ala.
Admin. Code.
(f)
License means the legal authority to operate an FED as defined above and to
offer and provide care as permitted under these rules. A license may only be
granted by the Board through the actions of its authorized agents.
(g) License Certificate means a document
issued by the Department showing that the entity named on the document is
licensed as an FED. A license certificate shall contain the signature of the
State Health Officer and other seals and markings designed to demonstrate its
authenticity. The license certificate shall be posted in a conspicuous place on
the premises.
(h) Parent Hospital
means the licensed hospital that owns and operates an FED.
(i) Physician means a person currently
licensed to practice medicine and/or surgery in Alabama under the provisions
contained in current state statutes.
(j) Principal means an individual associated
with a governing authority or a license applicant in any of the following
capacities:
1. Administrator, or
equivalent;
2. Chief Executive
Officer, or equivalent;
3. Owner of
a controlling interest in the governing authority, or, if the governing
authority is a subsidiary of another business entity, owner of a controlling
interest in the parent business entity; or
4. If no person has a controlling interest in
the governing authority or in a parent corporation of the governing authority,
then an owner of 10 percent or more of the governing authority or of any
business entity of which the governing authority is a subsidiary.
(k) Registered Nurse means a
person who holds an active license issued by the Alabama Board of
Nursing.
(3) An FED
shall be accredited by the same accrediting organization as the parent hospital
if the parent hospital has federal deemed status with the Department of Health
and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
(4) An FED, as a department of a hospital,
shall be in compliance with the hospital conditions of participation as found
at 42 CFR § 482 as they relate to emergency departments and with the
requirements found at 42 CFR
§
413.65 for provider-based off campus
departments of the main hospital.
(5) An FED shall not retain any patient
beyond 23 hours and 59 minutes under normal operations and shall not hold
itself out as an emergency hospital.
