Virginia Law

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Acute psychiatric services" means hospital-based inpatient psychiatric services provided in distinct inpatient units in general hospitals or freestanding psychiatric hospitals.

"Acute substance abuse disorder treatment services" means short-term hospital-based inpatient treatment services with access to the resources of (i) a general hospital, (ii) a psychiatric unit in a general hospital, (iii) an acute care addiction treatment unit in a general hospital licensed by the Department of Health, or (iv) a chemical dependency specialty hospital with acute care medical and nursing staff and life support equipment licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

"Bassinet" means an infant care station, including warming stations and isolettes.

"Bed" means that unit, within the complement of a medical care facility, subject to COPN review as required by Article 1.1 (§ 32.1-102.1 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia and designated for use by patients of the facility or service. For the purposes of this chapter, bed does include cribs and bassinets used for pediatric patients but does not include cribs and bassinets in the newborn nursery or neonatal special care setting.

"Cardiac catheterization" means an invasive procedure where a flexible tube is inserted into the patient through an extremity blood vessel and advanced under fluoroscopic guidance into the heart chambers or coronary arteries. A cardiac catheterization may be conducted for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes but does not include a simple right heart catheterization for monitoring purposes as might be performed in an electrophysiology laboratory, pulmonary angiography as an isolated procedure, or cardiac pacing through a right electrode catheter.

"Commissioner" means the State Health Commissioner.

"Competing applications" means applications for the same or similar services and facilities that are proposed for the same health planning district, or same health planning region for projects reviewed on a regional basis, and are in the same batch review cycle.

"Complex therapeutic cardiac catheterization" means the performance of cardiac catheterization for the purpose of correcting or improving certain conditions that have been determined to exist in the heart or great arteries or veins of the heart, specifically catheter-based procedures for structural treatment to correct congenital or acquired structural or valvular abnormalities.

"Computed tomography" or "CT" means a noninvasive diagnostic technology that uses computer analysis of a series of cross-sectional scans made along a single axis of a bodily structure or tissue to construct an image of that structure.

"Continuing care retirement community" or "CCRC" means a retirement community consistent with the requirements of Chapter 49 (§ 38.2-4900 et seq.) of Title 38.2 of the Code of Virginia.

"COPN" means a Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need for a project as required in Article 1.1 (§ 32.1-102.1 et seq.) of Chapter 4 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia.

"COPN program" means the Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program implementing Article 1.1 (§ 32.1-102.1 et seq.) of Chapter 4 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia.

"DEP" means diagnostic equivalent procedure, a method for weighing the relative value of various cardiac catheterization procedures as follows: a diagnostic cardiac catheterization equals 1 DEP, a simple therapeutic cardiac catheterization equals 2 DEPs, a same session procedure (diagnostic and simple therapeutic) equals 3 DEPs, and a complex therapeutic cardiac catheterization equals 5 DEPs. A multiplier of 2 will be applied for a pediatric procedure (i.e., a pediatric diagnostic cardiac catheterization equals 2 DEPs, a pediatric simple therapeutic cardiac catheterization equals 4 DEPs, and a pediatric complex therapeutic cardiac catheterization equals 10 DEPs.)

"Diagnostic cardiac catheterization" means the performance of cardiac catheterization for the purpose of detecting and identifying defects in the great arteries or veins of the heart or abnormalities in the heart structure, whether congenital or acquired.

"Direction" means guidance, supervision, or management of a function or activity.

"Gamma knife®" means the name of a specific instrument used in stereotactic radiosurgery.

"Health planning district" means the same contiguous areas designated as planning districts by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development or its successor.

"Health planning region" means a contiguous geographic area of the Commonwealth as designated by the State Board of Health with a population base of at least 500,000 persons, characterized by the availability of multiple levels of medical care services, reasonable travel time for tertiary care, and congruence with planning districts.

"Health system" means an organization of two or more medical care facilities, including hospitals, that are under common ownership or control and are located within the same health planning district, or health planning region for projects reviewed on a regional basis.

"Hospital" means a medical care facility licensed as an inpatient hospital or outpatient surgical center by the Department of Health or as a psychiatric hospital by the Department of Behavioral Health, and Developmental Services.

"ICF/MR" means an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded.

"Indigent" means any person whose gross family income is equal to or less than 200% of the federal Nonfarm Poverty Level or income levels A through E of 12VAC5-200-10 and who is uninsured.

"Inpatient" means a patient who is hospitalized longer than 24 hours for health or health related services.

"Intensive care beds" or "ICU" means inpatient beds located in the following units or categories:

1. General intensive care units are those units where patients are concentrated by reason of serious illness or injury regardless of diagnosis. Special lifesaving techniques and equipment are immediately available and patients are under continuous observation by nursing staff;

2. Cardiac care units, also known as Coronary Care Units or CCUs, are units staffed and equipped solely for the intensive care of cardiac patients; and

3. Specialized intensive care units are any units with specialized staff and equipment for the purpose of providing care to seriously ill or injured patients based on age selected categories of diagnoses, including units established for burn care, trauma care, neurological care, pediatric care, and cardiac surgery recovery but does not include bassinets in neonatal special care units.

"Lithotripsy" means a noninvasive therapeutic procedure to (i) crush renal and biliary stones using shock waves (i.e., renal lithotripsy) or (ii) treat certain musculoskeletal conditions and relieve the pain associated with tendonitis (i.e., orthopedic lithotripsy).

"Long-term acute care hospital" or "LTACH" means an inpatient hospital that provides care for patients who require a length of stay greater than 25 days and is, or proposes to be, certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a long-term care inpatient hospital pursuant to 42 CFR Part 412. An LTACH may be either a freestanding facility or located within an existing or host hospital.

"Magnetic resonance imaging" or "MRI" means a noninvasive diagnostic technology using a nuclear spectrometer to produce electronic images of specific atoms and molecular structures in solids, especially human cells, tissues and organs.

"Medical rehabilitation" means those services provided consistent with 42 CFR 412.23 nd 412.24.

"Medical/surgical" means those services available for the care and treatment of patients not requiring specialized services.

"Minimum survival rates" means the base percentage of transplant recipients who survive at least one year or for such other period of time as specified by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

"Neonatal special care" means care for infants in one or more of the higher service levels designated in 12VAC5-410-443 .

"Nursing facility" means those facilities or components thereof licensed to provide long-term nursing care.

"Obstetrical services" means the distinct organized program, equipment and care related to pregnancy and the delivery of newborns in inpatient facilities.

"Off-site replacement" means the relocation of existing beds or services from an existing medical care facility site to another location within the same health planning district.

"Open heart surgery" means a surgical procedure requiring the use or immediate availability of a heart-lung bypass machine or "pump." The use of the pump during the procedure distinguishes "open heart" from "closed heart" surgery.

"Operating room" means a room used solely or principally for the provision of surgical procedures involving the administration of anesthesia, multiple personnel, recovery room access, and a fully controlled environment.

"Operating room use" means the amount of time a patient occupies an operating room and includes room preparation and cleanup time.

"Operating room visit" means one session in one operating room in an inpatient hospital or outpatient surgical center, which may involve several procedures. Operating room visit may be used interchangeably with "operation" or "case."

"Outpatient" means a patient who visits a hospital, clinic, or associated medical care facility for diagnosis or treatment, but is not hospitalized 24 hours or longer.

"Pediatric" means patients younger than 18 years of age. Newborns in nurseries are excluded from this definition.

"Perinatal services" means those resources and capabilities that all hospitals offering general level newborn services as described in 12VAC5-410-443 must provide routinely to newborns.

"PET/CT scanner" means a single machine capable of producing a PET image with a concurrently produced CT image overlay to provide anatomic definition to the PET image. For the purpose of granting a COPN, the State Board of Health pursuant to § 32.1-102.2 A 6 of the Code of Virginia has designated PET/CT as a specialty clinical service. A PET/CT scanner shall be reviewed under the PET criteria as an enhanced PET scanner unless the CT unit will be used independently. In such cases, a PET/CT scanner that will be used to take independent PET and CT images will be reviewed under the applicable PET and CT services criteria.

"Planning horizon year" means the particular year for which bed or service needs are projected.

"Population" means the census figures shown in the most current series of projections published by a demographic entity as determined by the commissioner.

"Positron emission tomography" or "PET" means a noninvasive diagnostic or imaging modality using the computer-generated image of local metabolic and physiological functions in tissues produced through the detection of gamma rays emitted when introduced radionuclides decay and release positrons. A PET device or scanner may include an integrated CT to provide anatomic structure definition.

"Primary service area" means the geographic territory from which 75% of the patients of an existing medical care facility originate with respect to a particular service being sought in an application.

"Procedure" means a study or treatment or a combination of studies and treatments identified by a distinct ICD-10 or CPT code performed in a single session on a single patient.

"Qualified" means meeting current legal requirements of licensure, registration, or certification in Virginia or having appropriate training, including competency testing, and experience commensurate with assigned responsibilities.

"Radiation therapy" means treatment using ionizing radiation to destroy diseased cells and for the relief of symptoms. Radiation therapy may be used alone or in combination with surgery or chemotherapy.

"Relevant reporting period" means the most recent 12-month period, prior to the beginning of the applicable batch review cycle, for which data is available from VHI or a demographic entity as determined by the commissioner.

"Rural" means territory, population, and housing units that are classified as "rural" by the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics Administration.

"Simple therapeutic cardiac catheterization" means the performance of cardiac catheterization for the purpose of correcting or improving certain conditions that have been determined to exist in the heart, specifically catheter-based treatment procedures for relieving coronary artery narrowing.

"SMFP" means the state medical facilities plan as contained in Article 1.1 (§ 32.1-102.1 et seq.) of Chapter 4 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia used to make medical care facilities and services needs decisions.

"Stereotactic radiosurgery" or "SRS" means the use of external radiation in conjunction with a stereotactic guidance device to very precisely deliver a therapeutic dose to a tissue volume. SRS may be delivered in a single session or in a fractionated course of treatment up to five sessions.

"Stereotactic radiotherapy" or "SRT" means more than one session of stereotactic radiosurgery.

"Substance abuse disorder treatment services" means services provided to individuals for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or palliation of chemical dependency, which may include attendant medical and psychiatric complications of chemical dependency. Substance abuse disorder treatment services are licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health, and Developmental Services.

"Supervision" means to direct and watch over the work and performance of others.

"Use rate" means the rate at which an age cohort or the population uses medical facilities and services. The rates are determined from periodic patient origin surveys conducted for the department by the regional health planning agencies or other health statistical reports authorized by Chapter 7.2 (§ 32.1-276.2 et seq.) of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia.

"VHI" means the health data organization defined in § 32.1-276.4 of the Code of Virginia and under contract with the Virginia Department of Health.