35-2-901. Definitions; applicability of provisions.

(a) As used in this act:

(i) "Acute care" means short term care provided in a hospital;

(ii) "Ambulatory surgical center" means a facility which provides surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization and is not part of a hospital or offices of private physicians, dentists or podiatrists;

(iii) "Birthing center" means a facility which operates for the primary purpose of performing deliveries and is not part of a hospital;

(iv) "Boarding home" means a dwelling or rooming house operated by any person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of operating a home for the purpose of letting rooms for rent and providing meals and personal daily living care, but not habilitative or nursing care, for persons not related to the owner. Boarding home does not include a lodging facility or an apartment in which only room and board is provided;

(v) "Construction area" means thirty (30) highway miles, from any existing nursing care facility or hospital with swing beds to the site of the proposed nursing care facility, as determined by utilizing the state map prepared by the Wyoming department of transportation;

(vi) "Department" means the department of health;

(vii) "Division" means the designated division within the department of health;

(viii) "Freestanding diagnostic testing center" means a mobile or permanent facility which provides diagnostic testing but not treatment and is not part of the private offices of health care professionals operating within the scope of their licenses;

(ix) Repealed By Laws 1999, ch. 119, § 2.

(x) "Health care facility" means any ambulatory surgical center, assisted living facility, adult day care facility, adult foster care home, alternative eldercare home, birthing center, boarding home, freestanding diagnostic testing center, home health agency, hospice, hospital, freestanding emergency center, intermediate care facility for people with intellectual disability, medical assistance facility, nursing care facility, rehabilitation facility and renal dialysis center;

(xi) "Home health agency" means an agency primarily engaged in arranging and directly providing nursing or other health care services to persons at their residence;

(xii) "Hospice" means a program of care for the terminally ill and their families given in a home or health facility which provides medical, palliative, psychological, spiritual and supportive care and treatment. Hospice care may include short-term respite care for non-hospice patients, if the primary activity of the hospice is the provision of hospice services to terminally ill individuals and provided that the respite care is paid by the patient or by a private third party payor and not through any governmental third party payment program;

(xiii) "Hospital" means an institution or a unit in an institution providing one (1) or more of the following to patients by or under the supervision of an organized medical staff:

(A) Diagnostic and therapeutic services for medical diagnosis, treatment and care of injured, disabled or sick persons;

(B) Rehabilitation services for the rehabilitation of injured, disabled or sick persons;

(C) Acute care;

(D) Psychiatric care;

(E) Swing beds.

(xiv) "Intermediate care facility for people with intellectual disability" means a facility which provides on a regular basis health related care and training to persons with intellectual disabilities or persons with related conditions, who do not require the degree of care and treatment of a hospital or nursing facility and services above the need of a boarding home. The term also means "intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded" or "ICFMR" or "ICFs/MR" as those terms are used in federal law and in other laws, rules and regulations;

(xv) "Medical assistance facility" means a facility which provides inpatient care to ill or injured persons prior to their transportation to a hospital or provides inpatient care to persons needing that care for a period of no longer than sixty (60) hours and is located more than thirty (30) miles from the nearest Wyoming hospital;

(xvi) "Nursing care facility" means a facility providing assisted living care, nursing care, rehabilitative and other related services;

(xvii) "Physician" means a doctor of medicine or osteopathy licensed to practice medicine or surgery under state law;

(xviii) "Psychiatric care" means the in-patient care and treatment of persons with a mental diagnosis;

(xix) "Rehabilitation facility" means an outpatient or residential facility which is operated for the primary purpose of assisting the rehabilitation of disabled persons including persons with acquired brain injury by providing comprehensive medical evaluations and services, psychological and social services, or vocational evaluations and training or any combination of these services and in which the major portion of the services is furnished within the facility;

(xx) "Renal dialysis center" means a freestanding facility for treatment of kidney diseases;

(xxi) "Swing bed" means a special designation for a hospital which has a program to provide specialized in-patient long term care. Any medical-surgical bed in a hospital can be designated as a swing bed;

(xxii) "Assisted living facility" means a dwelling operated by any person, firm or corporation engaged in providing limited nursing care, personal care and boarding home care, but not habilitative care, for persons not related to the owner of the facility. This definition may include facilities with secured units and facilities dedicated to the special care and services for people with Alzheimer's disease or other dementia conditions;

(xxiii) "Adult day care facility" means any facility not otherwise certified by the department of health, engaged in the business of providing activities of daily living support and supervision services programming based on a social model, to four (4) or more persons eighteen (18) years of age or older with physical or mental disabilities;

(xxiv) "Adult foster care home" means a home where care is provided for up to five (5) adults who are not related to the provider by blood, marriage or adoption, except in special circumstances, in need of long term care in a home like atmosphere. "Adult foster care home" does not include any residential facility otherwise licensed or funded by the state of Wyoming. The homes shall be regulated in accordance with this act and with the Wyoming Long Term Care Choices Act, which shall govern in case of conflict with this act;

(xxv) "Alternative eldercare home" means a facility as defined in W.S. 42-6-102(a)(iii). The homes shall be regulated in accordance with this act and with the Wyoming Long Term Care Choices Act which shall govern in case of conflict with this act;

(xxvi) "Freestanding emergency center" means a facility that provides services twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week for life threatening emergency medical conditions and is at a location separate from a hospital;

(xxvii) "This act" means W.S. 35-2-901 through 35-2-913.

(b) This act does not apply to hospitals or any other facility or agency operated by the federal government which would otherwise be required to be licensed under this act or to any person providing health care services within the scope of his license in a private office.