As used in this chapter:

(1) "Board" shall mean the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control.

(2) "Branch office" shall mean a location or site from which a home health agency provides services within a portion of the total geographic area served by the parent agency. The branch office is part of the home health agency and is located sufficiently close to share administration, supervision, and services in a manner that renders it unnecessary for the branch independently to meet the conditions of participation as a home health agency.

(3) "Department" shall mean South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(4) "Home health agency" shall mean public, nonprofit, or proprietary organization, whether owned or operated by one or more persons or legal entities, which furnishes or offers to furnish home health services.

(5) "Home health services" shall mean those items and services furnished to an individual by a home health agency, or by others under arrangement with the home health agency, on a visiting basis, and except for subsection "e" below, in a place of temporary or permanent residence used as the individual's home as follows:

(a) Part-time or intermittent skilled nursing care as ordered by a physician and provided by or under the supervision of a registered nurse and at least one other service listed below;

(b) Physical, occupational or speech therapy;

(c) Medical social services, home health aide services and other therapeutic services;

(d) Medical supplies and the use of medical appliances;

(e) Any of the foregoing items and services which are provided on an outpatient basis under arrangements made by the home health agency with a hospital, nursing care facility, or rehabilitation center and the furnishing of which involves the use of equipment of such a nature that the items and services cannot be readily made available to the individual in his home, or which are furnished at such facility while the patient is there to receive such items or service, but not including transportation of the individual in connection with any such items or services.

(6) "License" shall mean a license issued by the Department.

(7) "Licensee" shall mean the individual, corporation, or public entity with whom rests the ultimate responsibility for maintaining approved standards for the home health agency.

(8) "Parent Home Health Agency" shall mean the agency that develops and maintains administrative controls of subunits or branch offices.

(9) "Physician" shall mean an individual currently licensed to practice medicine, surgery, or osteopathy in this State.

(10) "Registered Nurse" shall mean an individual who is currently licensed as such in this State.

(11) "Subunit" shall mean a semiautonomous organization, which serves patients in a geographic area different from that of the parent agency. The subunit by virtue of the distance between it and the parent agency is judged incapable of sharing administration, supervision, and services on a daily basis with the parent agency and must, therefore, independently meet the conditions of participation for home health agencies.

HISTORY: 1978 Act No. 548 Section 2.