N.J. Admin. Code § 8:36-1.3

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 21, November 4, 2024
Section 8:36-1.3 - Definitions

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

"Activities of daily living (ADL)" means the functions or tasks for self-care, which are performed either independently or with supervision or assistance. Activities of daily living include dressing, bathing, toilet use, transfer, locomotion, bed mobility, and eating.

"Advanced practice nurse" means an individual who is certified by the New Jersey State Board of Nursing in accordance with N.J.S.A. 45:11-23 et seq.

"Aging in place" means a process whereby individuals remain in their living environment despite the physical and/or mental decline and growing needs for supportive services that may occur in the course of aging. For aging in place to occur, services are added, increased, or adjusted to compensate for the individual's physical and/or mental decline.

"Assistance with transfer" means providing the physical assistance of no more than two facility staff while the resident moves between bed and a standing position or between bed, chair or wheelchair.

"Assisted living" means a coordinated array of supportive personal and health services, available 24 hours per day, to residents who have been assessed to need these services including persons who require nursing home level of care. Assisted living promotes resident self direction and participation in decisions that emphasize independence, individuality, privacy, dignity, and homelike surroundings.

"Assisted living program" means the provision of or arrangement for meals and assisted living services, when needed, to the tenants (also known as residents) of publicly subsidized housing which because of any Federal, State, or local housing laws, rules, regulations or requirements cannot become licensed as an assisted living residence. An assisted living program may also provide staff resources and other services to a licensed assisted living residence and a licensed comprehensive personal care home.

"Assisted living program provider" means an organization licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health to provide all services required of an assisted living program.

"Assisted living residence" means a facility that is licensed by the Department of Health to provide apartment-style housing and congregate dining and to assure that assisted living services are available when needed, for four or more adult persons unrelated to the proprietor. Apartment units offer, at a minimum, one unfurnished room, a private bathroom, a kitchenette, and a lockable door on the unit entrance.

"Assisted living values" means the organization, development and implementation of services and other facility or program features so as to promote and encourage each resident's choice, dignity, independence, individuality and privacy in a homelike environment. Assisted living values promote the concepts of aging in place and shared responsibility.

"Available" means ready for immediate use (pertaining to equipment) or capable of being reached (pertaining to personnel), unless otherwise defined.

"Bedridden" means physically unable to rise from bed, even with assistance with transfer from the bed.

"Bounded choice" means limits placed on a resident's choice as a result of an assessment, in accordance with N.J.A.C. 8:36-5.18, which indicates that such resident's choices or preferences place the resident or others at a risk of harm or lead to consequences which violate the norms of the facility or program or the rights of others.

"Center" or "Centers" means ecologically designed compact forms of development and redevelopment that are necessary to assure efficient infrastructure and protection of natural resources in the various regions of the State of New Jersey pursuant to the State Plan for Development and Redevelopment created pursuant to the requirements of the State Planning Act, N.J.S.A. 52:18A-196 through 207.

"Certificate of Need and Licensing Program" or "Program" means a unit of the Department for which the contact information is Certificate of Need and Licensing Program, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 358, Trenton, NJ 08625-0358, (609) 292-6552.

"Choice" means the number of opportunities and viable options available to residents to act on their preferences and to exercise control over their lives.

"Cohorting" means the practice of grouping patients who are or are not colonized or infected with the same organism to confine their care to one area and prevent contact with other patients.

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health.

"Communicable disease" means an illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products which occurs through transmission of that agent or its products from a reservoir to a susceptible host.

"Comprehensive personal care home" means a facility which is licensed by the Department of Health to provide room and board and to assure that assisted living services are available when needed, to four or more adults unrelated to the proprietor. Residential units in comprehensive personal care homes house no more than two residents and have a lockable door on the unit entrance.

"Continuing care retirement community" means a facility that has received a certificate of authority pursuant to the Continuing Care Retirement Community Regulation and Financial Disclosure Act, N.J.S.A. 52:27D-330 et seq.

"Customized resident medication package" means a unit-of-use package prepared by a pharmacist for a specific resident comprising a series of containers and containing two or more prescribed solid oral dosage forms, and so designed or labeled as to indicate the day and time, or period of time, that the contents within each container are to be taken.

"Defibrillator" means a medical device heart monitor and defibrillator that has received approval of its pre-market notification filed pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 360.(k) from the United States Food and Drug Administration, is capable of recognizing the presence or absence of ventricular fibrillation or rapid ventricular tachycardia, is capable of determining, without intervention by an operator, whether defibrillation should be performed, and upon determining that defibrillation should be performed, automatically charges and requests delivery of an electrical impulse to an individual's heart.

"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Health.

"Dignity" means the self-worth of a resident. Dignity is enhanced and supported when the facility or program, and its staff and policies and procedures, demonstrate courtesy, respect the resident's right to make decisions, and allow personal assistance and care to be provided in privacy, with acceptance of disabilities and emphasis on abilities. (See N.J.A.C. 8:36-1.2(b)).

"Direct supervision" means supervision on the premises.

"Division of Health Facility Survey and Field Operations" or "Division" means a unit of the Department for which the contact information is Division of Health Facility Survey and Field Operations, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 367, Trenton, NJ 08625-0358, (800) 792-9770

"Documented" means written, signed, and dated.

"Drug regimen review" means an individual resident record review conducted by the consultant or provider pharmacist, including, but not limited to, laboratory tests, dietary requirements, medication administration records, physician's, advanced practice nurse's, or physician assistant's and nurse's clinical notes, physician's, advanced practice nurse's, or physician assistant's orders and progress notes, in order to monitor for potentially significant adverse drug reactions, drug-to-drug and drug-food interactions, allergies, contraindications, rationality of therapy, drug use evaluation and laboratory test results.

"Employee" means a person who is gainfully employed in the assisted living facility on a full- or part-time basis and for whom a record of hours worked and wages paid are maintained and who meets the health, age and other requirements of this chapter. Reimbursement for such employment may include salaries, wages, room and board, or any combination thereof. A person placed in the assisted living facility under a purchase of care or service agreement by the facility, or the resident, is not considered an employee.

"Full-time" means a time period established by the facility as a full working week as defined in the facility's policies and procedures.

"Governing authority" means the organization, person, or persons designated to assume legal responsibility for the management, operation, and financial viability of the facility.

"Guardian" means a person appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction to handle the affairs and protect the rights of any resident of the facility who has been declared a mental incompetent. Guardian does not include a person affiliated with the facility, its operations or personnel, unless so ordered by the court.

"Half-time" means a time period established by the facility as a half working week as defined in the facility's policies and procedures.

"Health care facility" means a facility defined in N.J.S.A. 26:2H-1 et seq., and amendments thereto.

"Health Care Plan Review Unit" means a unit within the Division of Codes and Standards in the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for which the contact information is PO Box 817, Trenton, NJ 08625-0817, (609) 633-8151.

"Health care service" means any service provided to a resident of an assisted living residence or comprehensive personal care home that is ordered by a physician and required to be provided or delegated by a licensed, registered or certified health care professional. Any other service, whether or not ordered by a physician, that is not required to be provided by a licensed, registered or certified health care professional is not to be considered a health care service. For purposes of this definition, a certified health care professional excludes certified homemaker/home health aides, certified nurse aides, certified personal care assistants, and certified medication aides.

"Homelike environment" means a residential setting where a sense of family and community pervades to foster emotional attachment to people and place and in which a resident's preferred lifestyle, habits and use of personal belongings are encouraged and supported.

"Hospice" means a program of palliative and supportive services provided to terminally ill persons and their families in the form of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care.

"Independence" means the support and enhancement of resident capabilities and facilitation of resident abilities so that the resident's preferences and choices may be implemented within a barrier-free environment.

"Individuality" means each resident's unique needs, capabilities, personalities, backgrounds and preferences.

"Job description" means written specifications developed for each position in the facility, containing the qualifications, duties and responsibilities, and accountability required of employees in that position.

"Licensed nursing personnel" (licensed nurse) means registered professional nurses or practical nurses licensed by the New Jersey Board of Nursing in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:37.

"Managed risk" means the process of balancing resident choice and independence with the health and safety of the resident and other persons in the facility or program. If a resident's preference or decision places the resident or others at risk or is likely to lead to adverse consequences, such risks or consequences are discussed with the resident, and, if the resident agrees, a resident representative, and a formal plan to avoid or reduce negative or adverse outcomes is negotiated, in accordance with the provisions of N.J.A.C. 8:36-5.18.

"Managed risk agreement" means the written formal plan developed in consideration of shared responsibility, bounded choice and assisted living values and negotiated between the resident and the facility or program to avoid or reduce the risk of adverse outcomes which may occur in an assisted living environment.

"Medication administration" means a procedure in which a prescribed medication or biological is given to a resident by an authorized individual in accordance with all laws and regulations governing such procedures. The complete process of administration includes:

1. Removing an individual dose from a previously dispensed, properly labeled container (including a unit dose or unit-of-use container);
2. Verifying it with the prescriber's orders;
3. Giving the individual dose to the resident;
4. Seeing that the resident takes it (if oral); and
5. Recording the required information, including but not limited to the method of administration, time administered, initials of individuals who administered the medication, and effect of the medication when "prn" or as-needed medications are administered.

"Medication administration record" or "MAR" means an individual resident record that contains, but is not limited to: resident name, date of birth, diagnosis(es), age, physician, name and medication strength, dosage form, route of administration, frequency, date and time of administration, initials of individual administering the medication, a section containing the full signature and title of each individual who initials the MAR, date medication ordered, stop date if applicable, allergies, and all other professionally acceptable information appropriate to MARs.

"Medication aide" means a person who is qualified in accordance with N.J.A.C. 8:36-9.2.

"Medication Aide Training Competency and Evaluation Program" or "MATCEP" means a Department approved minimal 30-hour training course conducted by a Department approved registered professional nurse and registered pharmacist, to instruct certified nurse aides, certified homemaker/home health aides or certified personal care assistants, in the administration of medications to residents, within assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes and assisted living programs.

"Medication dispensing" means a procedure entailing the interpretation of the original or direct copy of the prescriber's orders for a medication or a biological and, pursuant to that order, the proper selection, measuring, labeling, packaging, and issuance of the medication or biological to a resident or a service unit of the facility, in conformance with all applicable Federal, State, and local rules and regulations.

"Medication error" means any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or resident harm, while the medication is in the control of the health care professional. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems including: prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use. The error may or may not be seen by the surveyor during an observation of a resident receiving medication.

"Nursing home-level care" means that an individual requires "nursing facility services" as defined at N.J.A.C. 8:85-2.1. Nursing home-level care is provided to individuals who have chronic medical condition(s) resulting in moderate to severe impairments in physical, behavioral, cognitive, and/or psychosocial functioning. The need for nursing home-level care and services is determined by a registered professional nurse and identified in a plan of care.

"Nursing supervision" means services which are provided to a resident whose condition requires continued monitoring of vital signs and physical and cognitive status. Such services shall be medically complex enough to require ongoing assessment, planning, or intervention by a nurse; required to be performed by or under the supervision of licensed nursing personnel or other professional personnel for safe and effective performance; required on a daily basis; and consistent with the nature and severity of the resident's condition or the disease state or stage.

"Pain management," in accordance with N.J.A.C. 8:43E-6, means the assessment of pain and, if appropriate, treatment in order to assure the needs of patients or residents of health care facilities who experience problems with pain are met. Treatment of pain may include the use of medications or application of other modalities and medical devices such as, but not limited to, heat or cold, massage, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), acupuncture, and neurolytic techniques such as radiofrequency coagulation and cryotherapy.

"Personal care" means services supportive to residents' care and comfort, including, but not limited to, assistance with activities of daily living. Except as required by these rules, personal care need not be provided by a personal care assistant.

"Personal care assistant" means an individual who is qualified in accordance with N.J.A.C. 8:36-9.1.

"Pharmacist" means an individual who is licensed by the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy, in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:39-3.

"Physician" means an individual who is licensed or authorized by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners to practice medicine in the State of New Jersey, in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:35.

"Physician assistant" means an individual who is licensed by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:9-27.10 et seq.

"Privacy" means a resident's degree of control over a specific physical area and/or time; levels of intimacy with family and others; and communication and contact with others outside the facility or program environment.

"Program site" means a licensed assisted living residence, a licensed comprehensive personal care home or a publicly subsidized housing unit whose tenants may voluntarily be receiving the services of a licensed assisted living program provider.

"Publicly subsidized housing" means any housing for which the construction costs and/or the permanent financing have been underwritten with funds from any local, State or Federal entity (including low-income housing tax credits) for the purpose of making the housing affordable to persons with incomes below the area median. For the purpose of this definition, "publicly subsidized housing" can also mean rental housing developments in which all individual units available for rent are receiving rental assistance from a local, State, or Federal entity in order to make the units affordable to individuals with incomes below the area median.

"Religious and recreational activities" includes any religious, social, or recreational activity that is consistent with the resident's preferences and choosing, regardless of whether the activity is coordinated, offered, provided, or sponsored by facility staff or by an outside activities provider.

"Resident" means an individual who lives in an assisted living residence or comprehensive personal care home or is a tenant in publicly subsidized housing who voluntarily participates in an assisted living program.

"Residential unit" means a separate apartment or unit where one or more individuals reside within the assisted living residence or a room or rooms where residents reside within a comprehensive personal care home.

"Responsible person" means a person who has been designated by the resident and who has agreed to assist the resident, as needed, in arranging for health, social and financial services or making decisions regarding such services.

"Self administration" means a procedure in which any medication is taken orally, injected, inserted, or topically or otherwise administered by a resident to himself or herself.

"Shared responsibility" means that residents (and if the resident wishes, the resident's family) and providers of assisted living services share responsibility for planning and decision making affecting residents. To participate fully in shared responsibility, residents shall be provided with clear and understandable information about the possible consequences of their decision-making, in accordance with the provisions of N.J.A.C. 8:36-5.18(a)2.

"Shift" means a time period defined as a full working day by the facility in its policy manual.

"Signature" means, at a minimum, the first initial and full surname and title (for example, R.N., L.P.N., D.D.S., M.D., D.O., R.Ph.) of an individual, legibly written with his or her own hand. A controlled electronic signature system may be used.

"Social isolation" means a state of isolation, wherein a resident of a long-term care facility is unable to engage in social interactions and religious and recreational activities with other facility residents or with family members, friends, and external support systems.

"Specialized long-term care" or "specialized care" means the care of individuals who must use a respirator or mechanical ventilator, and the care of individuals with severe behavior management problems, such as combative, disruptive, and aggressive behaviors.

"Staff education plan" means a written plan which describes a coordinated program for employee education for each service, including inservice programs and on-the-job training.

"Staff orientation plan" means a written plan for the orientation of each new employee to the duties and responsibilities of the service to which he or she has been assigned, as well as to the personnel policies of the facility.

"Supervision" means authoritative procedural guidance by a qualified individual for the accomplishment of a function or activity within his or her sphere of competence, with initial direction and periodic on-site inspection of the actual act of accomplishing the function or activity.

"Total bed complement" means the resident census.

"Unit dose drug distribution system" means a system in which medications are delivered to the resident areas in single unit packaging, and which meets the following criteria:

1. Each medication shall be individually wrapped and labeled with the generic or trade (brand) name and strength of the medication, lot number or reference code, expiration date, and manufacturer's name, and shall be ready for administration to the resident;
2. Cautionary instructions shall appear on the resident's record of medication administration, and the system shall include provisions for noting additional information, including, but not limited to, special times or routes of administration and storage conditions; and,
3. Commercial repackagers shall comply with 21 CFR 201.1, incorporated herein by reference, as amended and supplemented, and N.J.A.C. 8:39.

"Unit-of-use" means a system in which medications are delivered to the resident areas either in single unit packaging, bingo or punch cards, blister or strip packs, or other system where each medication is physically separate. Individually labeled unit dose medications may be combined in a "bingo or punch card" to create a unit-of-use drug distribution system.

1. Labeling shall conform to paragraph 1 in the definition of "unit dose drug distribution system" above.
2. Cautionary instructions shall appear on the resident's record of administration and/or unit-of-use package, and the system shall include provisions for noting additional information, including, but not limited to, special times or routes of administration and storage conditions.

N.J. Admin. Code § 8:36-1.3

Amended by 54 N.J.R. 54(a), effective 1/3/2022
Amended by 55 N.J.R. 2271(a), effective 11/6/2023