New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 17 - TREASURY - GENERAL
Chapter 41 - OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSPERSON FOR THE INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE RULES
Subchapter 2 - PROCEDURES REQUIRED PRIOR TO WITHHOLDING OR WITHDRAWING LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENT FROM ELDERLY, INSTITUTIONALIZED RESIDENTS
Section 17:41-2.2 - Definitions
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Advanced practice nurse" means a person certified by the New Jersey Board of Nursing in accordance with the Advanced Practice Nurse Certification Act ("APNCA"), 45:11-45 et seq. All orders written by an advanced practice nurse pursuant to this subchapter must be done in accordance with the procedures established by the APNCA and implementing regulations.
"Capacity to make a healthcare decision" means the ability to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a particular healthcare decision, including the resident's diagnosis and prognosis, the burdens, benefits and risks associated with the decision and alternatives to the decision, and having the ability to make judgments about that information.
"Family member" shall mean, in order of priority, the resident's spouse in a marriage or a civil union, parents, children, or next of kin, if any.
"Fully informed" means being informed in language understandable to the resident of diagnosis and prognosis, the benefits, burdens and risks of the proposed treatment or non-treatment and its alternatives.
"Incapacitated" means lacking the capacity to make health care decisions, as defined above.
"Life-sustaining treatment" means any medical intervention that is administered to a resident in order to prolong life and delay death, including, but not limited to, medication, artificial nutrition, artificial hydration, and artificial respiration.
"Medically indicated treatment" means treatment that will improve the medical condition of the resident or is necessary to provide palliative care to the resident.
"Ombudsperson" means the Ombudsperson for the Institutionalized Elderly, or that person's designee.
"Palliative care" means medical, surgical or other interventions designed to alleviate suffering and discomfort, but not to cure.
"Permanently unconscious" is a medical diagnosis, which means that a person is not likely to return to a state of consciousness. For purposes of this subchapter, this term includes a medical diagnosis of "persistent vegetative state."
"Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form" means a standardized form created under the authority of the New Jersey Department of Health, 26:2H-129 et seq., that sets forth a person's wishes and preferences regarding life-sustaining treatment and is signed and dated by the person's attending physician or advanced practice nurse thereby converting the person's wishes and preferences into a medical order.
"Regional Long-Term Care Ethics Committee" means a group composed of healthcare and community members, who have participated in an Ombudsperson-approved training course, and acting under the auspices and with the approval of the Ombudsperson, provides education, policy development, and case consultation services to its facilities, residents, their family members, surrogate decision makers, managed care organizations representative, and managed care organizations case manager.
"Surrogate decision-maker" means a guardian, a close and caring family member, a domestic partner, as defined in section 3 of P.L. 2003, c. 246 (26:8A-3) or a person designated by the resident, including a health care representative or health care proxy appointed pursuant to 26:2H-58, who is willing and able to make a decision to withhold or to withdraw life-sustaining treatment on behalf of the resident.
