WAC 388-551-1010   Hospice program -- Definitions.  The following definitions and abbreviations and those found in WAC 388-500-0005, Medical definitions, apply to this subchapter.

     "Authorized representative" means an individual who has been authorized to terminate medical care or to elect or revoke the election of hospice care on behalf of a terminally ill individual who is mentally or physically incapacitated. See RCW 7.70.065.

     "Biologicals" means medicinal preparations including serum, vaccine autotoxins, and biotechnological drugs made from living organisms and their products.

     "Brief period" means six days or less within a thirty consecutive-day period.

     "Community services office (CSO)" means an office of the department that administers social and health services at the community level.

     "Discharge" means an agency ends hospice care for a client.

     "Election period" means the time, ninety or sixty days, that the client is certified as eligible for and chooses to receive hospice care.

     "Family" means an individual or individuals who are important to, and designated in writing by, the client and need not be relatives, or who are legally authorized to represent the client.

     "Home and community services (HCS) office" means an aging and disability services administration (ADSA) office that manages the state's comprehensive long-term care system which provides in-home, residential, and nursing home services to clients with functional disabilities.

     "Home health aide" means an individual registered or certified as a nursing assistant under chapter 18.88A RCW who, under the direction and supervision of a registered nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist, or speech therapist, assists in the delivery of nursing or therapy related activities, or both, to patients of a hospice agency, or hospice care center.

     "Home health aide services" means services provided by home health aides employed by an in-home services agency licensed to provide home health, hospice, or hospice care center services under the supervision of a registered nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist, or speech therapist. Such care may include ambulation and exercise, medication assistance level 1 and level 2, reporting changes in client's conditions and needs, completing appropriate records, and personal care or homemaker services, and other nonmedical tasks, as defined in this section.

     "Hospice agency" means a person or entity administering or providing hospice services directly or through a contract arrangement to individuals in places of temporary or permanent residence under the direction of an interdisciplinary team composed of at least a nurse, social worker, physician, spiritual counselor, and volunteer. (Note: For the purposes of this subchapter, requirements for hospice agencies also apply to hospice care centers.)

     "Hospice care center" means a homelike noninstitutional facility where hospice services are provided, and that meets the requirements for operation under RCW 70.127.280 and applicable rules.

     "Hospice services" means symptom and pain management provided to a terminally ill individual, and emotional, spiritual, and bereavement support for the individual and individual's family in a place of temporary or permanent residence.

     "Interdisciplinary team" means the group of individuals involved in client care providing hospice services or hospice care center services including, at a minimum, a physician, registered nurse, social worker, spiritual counselor, and volunteer.

     "Palliative" means medical treatment designed to reduce pain or increase comfort, rather than cure.

     "Plan of care" means a written document based on assessment of client needs that identifies services to meet these needs.

     "Related condition(s)" means any health conditions(s) that manifests secondary to or exacerbates symptoms associated with the progression of the condition and/or disease, the treatment being received, or the process of dying. (Examples of related conditions: Medication management of nausea and vomiting secondary to pain medication; skin breakdown prevention/treatment due to peripheral edema.)

     "Residence" means a client's home or place of living.

     "Revoke" or "revocation" means the choice to stop receiving hospice care.

     "Terminally ill" means the client has a life expectancy of six months or less, assuming the client's disease process runs its natural course.

     "Twenty-four-hour day" means a day beginning and ending at midnight.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 74.08.090, 74.09.520. 05-18-033, § 388-551-1010, filed 8/30/05, effective 10/1/05. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.09.520, 74.08.090, 42 C.F.R. 418.22 and 418.24. 99-09-007, § 388-551-1010, filed 4/9/99, effective 5/10/99.]