Section 590.20  Definitions

"Accredited family practice residency" means a training program meeting the requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education of the American Medical Association, or by the Committee on Postdoctoral Training of the American Osteopathic Association.

"ACT" means the family practice residency act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 144, par. 1451 et seq.).

"Committee" means the advisory committee for family practice residency programs created by the Act (Section 3.03 of the Act).

"Community Based Organization" means a locally organized and locally recognized group of individuals whose goals include efforts to maintain or increase the availability of primary health care in their community.

"Department" means the Illinois Department of Public Health (Section 3.01 of the Act).

"Designated shortage area" means an area designated by the director as a physician shortage area, a medically underserved area, or a critical health manpower shortage area as defined by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, or as further defined by the Department to enable it to effectively fulfill the purpose stated in Section 2 of the Act. Such areas may include the following:

An urban or rural area which is a rational area for the delivery of health services;

A population group; or

A public or nonprofit private medical facility

(Section 3.04 of the Act).

"Director" means the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (Section 3.02 of the Act).

"Family practice residency program" means a program accredited by the accreditation council for graduate medical education, or the committee on postdoctoral training of The American Osteopathic Association (Section 3.06 of the Act).

"Fellowship" means optional medical training, usually one year, completed after the residency training required for each of the primary care specialties.

"Full-time practice for physicians with active staff privileges" means maintaining office hours for patient care which equal or exceed the mean number of office hours per week reported by physicians, by specialty, and published in the American Medical Association's "Socioeconomic Characteristics of Medical Practice, 1989."

"Full-time practice for primary care physicians without active staff privileges" at a hospital means maintaining office hours or being employed for patient care an amount of time at least equal to the mean number of office hours per week reported by family practice physicians in the American Medical Association's "Socioeconomic Characteristics of Medical Practice, 1989."

"Local health department" means a county, multi-county, municipal or district public health agency recognized by the Department.

"Matriculation fees" are those educational expenses charged all students by the various medical schools. Such fees are charged to offset the expenses incurred by the school in areas such as the application and enrollment processing, library use charges, mandatory health insurance, and student activity fees.

"Medical school" means any private or public nonprofit school in Illinois which provides education leading to a doctor of medicine or osteopathy degree, and which is approved by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, pursuant to the Medical Practice Act of 1987 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 111, par. 4400-1).

"Medical student" means a resident of Illinois studying medicine in a medical school located in Illinois (Section 3.07 of the Act).

"Medically underserved population" means individuals who live in a designated shortage area or who, because of special health needs or low income, experience difficulty receiving health care.

"Obstetrical service" means that geographical area surrounding a hospital with an obstetrical unit and which is defined by an imaginary boundary determined by the shortest distance, either in time or miles, for a citizen or equivalent to travel to one hospital rather than another.

"Primary care physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches under the Medical Practice Act of 1987 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 111, par. 4400-1 et seq.) With a specialty in family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, or pediatrics as defined by recognized standards of professional medical practices (Section 3.05 of the Act).

"Rational service area" means the geographic area surrounding a physician's office, a hospital or a clinic, and from which the residents may be reasonably expected to seek health care from the physician, hospital or clinic located within the area.

"Residency matching process" means the National Resident Matching Program which coordinates the matching of medical students with the hospitals and residency training programs in the medical students' selected specialty. The matching application process usually lasts from June through September of one year, with match announcements made in March of the following year.

"Residency training" means the years of graduate medical education which follow medical school and which train the new physician in his or her chosen specialty (i.e., family practice, pediatrics, etc.).

"Rural" means any geographic area not located in a U.S. Bureau of the Census Metropolitan Statistical Area; or a county located within a Metropolitan Statistical Area but having a population of 60,000 or less; or a community located within a Metropolitan Statistical Area but having a population of 2,500 or less.