Washington Administrative Code
Title 246 - Health, Department of
FACILITY STANDARDS AND LICENSING
Chapter 246-329 - Childbirth centers
Section 246-329-010 - Definitions

(1) "Administration of drugs" means an act in which a single dose of a prescribed drug or biological is given to a client by an authorized person in accordance with all laws and rules governing these acts. The complete act of administration entails removing an individual dose from a previously dispensed, properly labeled container, including a unit dose container, verifying it with the orders of a practitioner who is legally authorized to prescribe, giving the individual dose to the proper client and properly recording the time and dose given.

(2) "Applicant" means a person seeking licensure as a childbirth center under this chapter.

(3) "Authenticated or authentication" means authorization of a written entry in a record by means of a signature which shall include, minimally, first initial, last name, and title or unique identifier verifying accuracy of information.

(4) "Bathing facility" means a bathtub or shower.

(5) "Birthing center" or "childbirth center" or "birth center" means any health facility, not part of a hospital or in a hospital, that provides facilities and clinical staff to support a birth service to low risk maternity clients. This chapter does not apply to any hospital approved by the American College of Surgeons, American Osteopathic Association, or its successor.

(6) "Birthing room" means a room designed, equipped, and arranged to provide for the care of a woman and newborn and to accommodate her support person or persons during the process of vaginal childbirth, (the three stages of labor and recovery of a woman and newborn).

(7) "Birth service" means the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care provided for low-risk maternity clients, including newborn care during transition and stabilization.

(8) "Client" means a woman, fetus, and newborn receiving care and services provided by a birth center during pregnancy and childbirth and recovery.

(9) "Clinical staff" means physicians and midwives, including contractors, appointed by the governing body to practice within the birth center and governed by rules and policies and procedures approved by the governing body.

(10) "Consultation" means the process used by the clinical staff of a childbirth center who maintain primary management responsibilities for the client's care to seek the opinion of a licensed physician on clinical issues that are client specific. The physician consulted must be qualified by training and experience in specific client need for which consultation is sought. Consultation, appropriate to client need, must be available during all times birth services are provided in a childbirth center.

(11) "Contractor" means an individual who has a written contract with a birth center licensee to provide birth services. The written contract must be approved by the governing body, including appointment of clinical privileges by the governing body. Birth services provided by contractors in licensed birth centers must meet requirements of this chapter, unless otherwise noted.

(12) "Department" means the Washington state department of health.

(13) "Emergency" means a medical emergency or injury requiring immediate medical or surgical intervention to prevent death or disability.

(14) "Emergency transfer" means the transfer of a maternal client or newborn in an emergent situation to a facility that can manage obstetrical and neonatal emergencies, including the ability to perform cesarean delivery.

(15) "Governing body" means the person or persons responsible for establishing and approving the purposes and policies and procedures of the childbirth center.

(16) "Hospital" means any institution, place, building, or agency which provides accommodations, facilities, and services over a continuous period of twenty-four hours or more, for observation, diagnosis, or care, of two or more individuals not related to the operator or suffering from any other condition which obstetrical, medical, or surgical services would be appropriate for care or diagnosis. "Hospital" as used in this definition includes facilities licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW. "Hospital" as used in this definition does not include:

(17) "Lavatory" means a plumbing fixture designed and equipped with a handwash device.

(18) "Low-risk maternal client" means an individual who:

(19) "Midwife" means a person licensed under chapter 18.79 RCW, or chapter 18.50 RCW, Midwifery.

(20) "New construction" means any of the following:

(21) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, or joint stock association, and the legal successor thereof.

(22) "Personnel" means individuals employed by the birth center, contractors of the birth center, students and volunteers.

(23) "Physician" means a person licensed under chapter 18.71 RCW, "Physicians," and rules adopted under chapter 246-919 WAC or chapter 18.57 RCW, "Osteopathy -- Osteopathic medicine and surgery," and rules adopted under chapter 246-853 WAC.

(24) "Referral" means the process by which the clinical staff of a childbirth center directs the client to a physician for management of a particular problem or aspect of the client's care.

(25) "Registered nurse" means a person licensed under chapter 18.79 RCW, and rules adopted under chapter 246-840 WAC.

(26) "Recovery" means that period or duration of time starting at birth and ending with discharge of a client from the birth center or the period of time between the birth and the time a client leaves the premises of the birth center.

(27) "Shall" means compliance is mandatory.

(28) "Support person" means the individual or individuals selected or chosen by a maternal client to provide emotional support and to assist her during the process of labor and childbirth.

(29) "Toilet" means a room containing at least one water closet.

(30) "Transfer of care" means the process by which the clinical staff of a childbirth center directs the client or newborn to a physician or other licensed health care provider for complete management of client's care. Transfer of care to an appropriate obstetrical department, patient care area or hospital, or physician(s) qualified in obstetrics or newborn/pediatric care respectively with admitting privileges to a hospital must be available twenty-four hours per day.

(31) "Volunteer" means an individual who is an unpaid worker in the birth center, other than a support person.

(32) "Water closet" means a plumbing fixture for defecation fitted with a seat and a device for flushing the bowl of the fixture with water.