TITLE XI
HOSPITALS AND SANITARIA

CHAPTER 151
RESIDENTIAL CARE AND HEALTH FACILITY LICENSING

Patients' Bill of Rights

Section 151:19

    151:19 Definitions. –
As used in this subdivision:
I. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the department of health and human services.
I-a. "Discharge" means movement of a patient from a facility to a non-institutional setting or the termination of services by a home health care provider when the discharging facility or home health care provider ceases to be legally responsible for the care of the patient.
II. "Facility" means any hospital, building, residence, or other place or part thereof, licensed under the provisions of RSA 151:2. For the purposes of RSA 151:21, RSA 151:25, and RSA 151:26, "facility" shall not include home health care providers, or private homes where home care services are provided.
III. [Repealed.]
IV. [Repealed.]
V. "Patient's personal representative" means a person, other than the licensee of, an employee of, or a person having a direct or indirect ownership interest in, a facility, who is designated in writing by a patient or patient's legal guardian for a specific, limited purpose or for the general purpose of assisting the patient in the exercise of any rights.
VI. "Patients' rights" or "rights" means those rights established under RSA 151:21 or RSA 151:21-b, as applicable.
VII. "Transfer" means movement of a patient from one facility to another facility when the legal responsibility for the care of the patient changes from the transferring to the receiving facility. Transfer shall not include the temporary movement of a patient from a facility to a hospital or other location for emergency medical treatment, as long as the facility is in compliance with RSA 151:25. In the event a facility refuses to readmit a patient in accordance with RSA 151:25 following a therapeutic leave, a transfer shall be deemed to have occurred when the decision not to readmit is made. Transfer shall not include movement of a client from a home care to an institutional setting or the shifting of service provision from one home health care provider to another.

Source. 1981, 453:1. 1983, 274:7, 10, 12. 1993, 243:1. 1995, 310:102. 2001, 111:1, 2, 5, eff. Aug. 25, 2001. 2013, 265:1, 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2014.