(a) The following definitions shall apply to this chapter:

(1)  “Department” means the State Department of Health Services.

(2)  “NHAP” or “program” means the Nursing Home Administrator Program.

(3)  “State” means California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. In this latter case, “state” includes the District of Columbia and the territories.

(4)  “Nursing home” means any institution, facility, place, building, or agency, or portion thereof, licensed as a skilled nursing facility, intermediate care facility, or intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled, as defined in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1250). “Nursing home” also means an intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled habilitative, intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled-nursing, or congregate living health facility, as defined in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1250), if a licensed nursing home administrator is charged with the general administration of the facility.

(5)  “Nursing home administrator” means an individual educated and trained within the field of nursing home administration who carries out the policies of the licensee of a nursing home and is licensed in accordance with this chapter. The nursing home administrator is charged with the general administration of a nursing home, regardless of whether he or she has an ownership interest and whether the administrator’s function or duties are shared with one or more other individuals.

(6)  “Administrator-in-Training Program” or “AIT Program” means a program that is approved by the NHAP in which qualified persons participate under the coordination, supervision, and teaching of a preceptor, as described in Section 1416.57, who has obtained approval from the NHAP.

(b)  Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow the program to have jurisdiction over an administrator of an intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled-nursing or an intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled habilitative, if the administrator of the facility is not using licensure under this chapter to qualify as an administrator in accordance with subdivision (d) of Section 1276.5.

(c)  Nothing in this section shall be construed to define an intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled-nursing or an intermediate care facility/developmentally disabled habilitative as a nursing home for purposes other than the licensure of nursing home administrators under this chapter.

(Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 687, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 2002.)