As used in this chapter:

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

(2) "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(3) "Hospice" means a centrally administered, interdisciplinary health care program, which provides a continuum of medically supervised palliative and supportive care for the terminally ill patient and the family including, but not limited to, outpatient and inpatient services provided directly or through written agreement. Inpatient services include, but are not limited to, services provided by a hospice in a licensed hospice facility.

Admission to a hospice program of care is based on the voluntary request of the hospice patient alone or in conjunction with designated family members.

(4) "Hospice facility" means an institution, place, or building in which a licensed hospice provides room, board, and appropriate hospice services on a twenty-four hour basis to individuals requiring hospice care pursuant to the orders of a physician.

(5) "Licensee" means the individual, corporation, or public entity with whom rests the ultimate responsibility for maintaining approved standards for the hospice or hospice facility.

(6) "Multiple location" means a properly registered additional site, other than the licensed primary office, from which a parent hospice organization provides hospice services. "Multiple location" does not mean a "work station" as defined in item (9).

(7) "Parent hospice" means a properly licensed hospice that, in addition to its primary office, also provides hospice services from a multiple location as defined in item (6).

(8) "Primary office" means the main office of a hospice program from which a parent hospice provides hospice services to patients and their families and from which a parent hospice performs oversight, administrative, and coordination of care duties for any multiple location.

(9) "Work station" means a site operated within the licensed service area of a hospice solely for the convenience of the staff where they may conduct activities including, but not limited to, completing paperwork, checking messages, or storing equipment. These work stations must not have signage with an address or operating hours, must not be advertised, and must not be open to the public for any reason, such as to distribute supplies or to receive referrals.

HISTORY: 1983 Act No. 13 Section 2; 2000 Act No. 248, Section 4; 2017 Act No. 61 (H.3132), Section 1, eff May 19, 2017.

Effect of Amendment

2017 Act No. 61, Section 1, in (3), substituted "program, which provides" for "program. This program must provide"; added (6), relating to the definition of "multiple location"; added (7), relating to the definition of "parent hospice"; added (8), relating to the definition of "primary office"; and added (9), relating to the definition of "work station".