Section 280.1000  Definitions

Act – the Hospice Program Licensing Act [210 ILCS 60].

Attending Physician – a physician who is a doctor of medicine or osteopathy and is identified by an individual, at the time the individual elects to receive hospice care, as having the most significant role in the determination and delivery of the individual's medical care.  (Section 3(a-10) of the Act) A Certified Nurse Practitioner can function in the role of attending physician as specified in section 408 of the federal Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.

Bereavement – the period of time during which the hospice patient's family experiences and adjusts to the death of the hospice patient. (Section 3(a) of the Act)

Bereavement Services –  counseling services provided to an individual's family after the individual's death.  (Section 3(a-5) of the Act)

Advanced Nurse Practitioner – a registered nurse who meets the requirements for licensure as an advanced practice nurse in the category of Certified Nurse Practitioner under the Nurse Practice Act.  According to section 408 of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, a nurse practitioner may not serve as a medical director or as the physician member of the interdisciplinary group.  The advanced nurse practitioner, acting as the attending physician, would be prohibited from certifying the terminal diagnosis.

Comprehensive Hospice – a program that provides hospice services and meets the minimum standards for certification under the Medicare program set forth in the Conditions of Participation in 42 CFR 418 but is not required to be Medicare-certified.  (Section 3(h-10) of the Act)

Counselor – a person who has earned at a minimum a bachelor's degree in counseling, psychology, or social work from an accredited college or university and who has one year of counseling experience in a health care setting; or a religious professional (clergy, religious or theologically trained lay person) who has a combination of documented formal training in pastoral counseling and supervised counseling experience in a health care or clinical setting.  The total of supervised work experience must equal at least one year in a clinical or health care setting.  Any person employed as a "counselor" in an Illinois Licensed Hospice Program prior to September 1, 1985 may continue to serve in that capacity at that agency only, even though he or she may not meet the qualifications for "counselor" as set forth in this Part.

Department – the Illinois Department of Public Health.  (Section 3(b) of the Act)

Director – the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health or designee. (Section 3(c) of the Act)

Employee – a paid or unpaid member of the staff of a hospice program, or, if the hospice program is a subdivision of an agency or organization, of the agency or

organization, who is appropriately trained and assigned to the hospice program.  "Employee" also means a volunteer whose duties are prescribed by the hospice program and whose performance of those duties is supervised by the hospice program.  (Section 3(l-5) of the Act)

Geographic Service Areas – the counties, cities, census track, etc., that the hospice identifies in the license application as required in Section 280.1020(a)(10) of this Part.

Governing Body – the policy-making authority, whether an individual or a group, that exercises general direction over the affairs of a hospice program and establishes policies concerning its operation and the welfare of the individuals it serves.

Home Health Agency – an agency licensed under the Home Health, Home Services, and Home Nursing Agency Licensing Act.

Hospice Aide – a person who provides assistance with meals, dressing, movement, bathing or other personal needs or maintenance.  Hospice aides must meet the requirements for Home Health Aides in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 245.70 or Nursing Assistants in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 300.660.

Hospice Care – a program of palliative care that provides for the physical, emotional, and spiritual care needs of a terminally ill patient and his or her family.  The goal of such care is to achieve the highest quality of life as defined by the patient and his or her family through the relief of suffering and control of symptoms.  (Section 3(d) of the Act)

Hospice Care Team – an interdisciplinary group or groups composed of individuals who provide or supervise the care and services offered by the hospice.  (Section 3(e) of the Act)

Hospice Patient – a terminally ill person receiving hospice services. (Section 3(f) of the Act)

Hospice Patient's Family – a hospice patient's immediate family consisting of a spouse, sibling, child, parent, and those individuals designated as such by the patient for the purposes of the Act.  (Section 3(g) of the Act)

Hospice Program – a licensed public agency or private organization, or a subdivision of either of those, that is primarily engaged in providing care to terminally ill individuals through a program of home care or inpatient care, or both home care and inpatient care, utilizing a medically directed interdisciplinary hospice care team of professionals or volunteers, or both professionals and volunteers.  A hospice program may be licensed as a comprehensive hospice program or a volunteer hospice program.  (Section 3(h-5) of the Act)

Hospice Residence –a separately licensed home, apartment building, or similar building providing living quarters:

that is owned or operated by a person licensed to operate as a comprehensive hospice; and

at which hospice services are provided to facility residents.

A building that is licensed under the Hospital Licensing Act or the Nursing Home Care Act is not a hospice residence.  (Section 3(g-1) of the Act)

Hospice Service Plan – a plan detailing the specific hospice services offered by a comprehensive or volunteer hospice program, and the administrative and direct care personnel responsible for those services.  The plan shall include but not be limited to those items specified in Section 280.2000 of this Part.  (Section 3(j) of the Act)

Hospice Services – a range of professional and other supportive services provided to a hospice patient and his or her family.  These services may include, but are not limited to, physician services, nursing services, medical social work services, spiritual counseling services, bereavement services, and volunteer services.  (Section 3(h) of the Act)

Hospital – a location licensed under the Hospital Licensing Act.

            Long-Term Care Facility – a location licensed under the Nursing Home Care Act.

Multiple Hospice Location – a location or site from which the hospice program provides non-residential nursing, social, pastoral/counseling, bereavement or dietary services within a portion of the total geographic area served by the hospice program.  The multiple hospice location is part of the hospice program and is located sufficiently close to share administration, supervision and services in a manner that renders it unnecessary for the multiple hospice location to independently require a hospice license.  Multiple hospice locations are not hospice residences and shall not provide inpatient care.

Not-for-Profit Agency – any hospice program that is operated:  by a not-for-profit corporation incorporated under, or qualified as a foreign corporation under, the General Not For Profit Corporation Act of 1986; or by a county pursuant to Division 5-22 of the Counties Code; or pursuant to a trust or endowment established for nonprofit, charitable purposes.

Nurse – a registered nurse or a licensed practical nurse as defined in the Nurse Practice Act.

Palliative Care – the management of pain and other distressing symptoms that incorporates medical, nursing, psychosocial, and spiritual care according to the needs, values, beliefs, and culture or cultures of the patient and his or her family.  The evaluation and treatment is patient-centered, with a focus on the central role of the family unit in decision-making.  (Section 3(i) of the Act)

Physician – any person licensed to practice medicine in all its branches as provided in the Medical Practice Act of 1987.

Representative – an individual who has been authorized under State law to terminate an individual's medical care or to elect or revoke the election of hospice care on behalf of a terminally ill individual who is mentally or physically incapacitated.  (Section 3(l-10) of the Act)

Research or Experimental Programs – use of patients receiving services in the systematic study, observation, or evaluation of factors related to the prevention, assessment, treatment, and understanding of an illness.  This involves all behavioral and medical experimental research that involves human beings as experimental subjects.

Social Worker – a person who is a licensed social worker or a licensed clinical social worker under the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act  and has a minimum of one year of social work experience in a health care setting.  An exception to the one-year experience requirement may be allowed upon approval by the Department of Public Health.  The Department's decision to grant an exception will be based on, but not be limited to, the hospice's efforts to employ a social worker who meets this requirement.

Staff – paid employees of a hospice, individuals working under contractual agreements, and volunteers.

Terminally Ill – a medical prognosis by a physician that a patient has an anticipated life expectancy of one year or less. (Section 3(k) of the Act)

Volunteer – a person who offers his or her services to a hospice without compensation.  Reimbursement for a volunteer's expenses in providing hospice service shall not be considered compensation.  (Section 3(l) of the Act)

Volunteer Hospice – a program which provides hospice services to patients regardless of their ability to pay, with emphasis on the utilization of volunteers to provide services, under the administration of a not-for-profit agency.  This does not prohibit the employment of staff.  (Section 3(m) of the Act) 

Workstation – an office provided for an employee's convenience and not identified in advertising or used for providing hospice services.

(Source:  Amended at 32 Ill. Reg. 2330, effective January 23, 2008)