As used in KRS 311.621 to 311.643: (1) "Adult" means a person eighteen (18) years of age or older and who is of sound mind; (2) "Advance directive" means a living will directive made in accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643, a living will or designation o f health care surrogate executed prior to July 15, 1994, and any other document that provides directions relative to health care to be provided to the person executing the document; (3) "Artificially-provided nutrition and hydration" means sustenance or fl uids that are artificially or technologically administered; (4) "Attending physician" means the physician who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient; (5) "Decisional capacity" means the ability to make and communicate a health care decision; (6) "Directive" means a living will directive in writing voluntarily made by an adult in accordance with the provisions of KRS 311.621 to 311.643; (7) "Grantor" means an adult who has executed an advance directive in accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643; (8) "Health care decision" means consenting to, or withdrawing consent for, any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention; (9) "Health care facility" means any institution, place, building, agency, or portion thereof, public or private , whether organized for profit or not, used, operated, or designed to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, nursing, rehabilitative, or preventive care, and licensed pursuant to KRS Chapter 216B; (10) "Health care provider" means any health care facility o r provider of health services, including but not limited to, those licensed, certified, or regulated under the provisions of KRS Chapters 211, 216, 311, 312, 313, or 314; (11) "Life-prolonging treatment" means any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention which: (a) Utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, prolong, restore, or supplant a spontaneous vital function; and (b) When administered to a patient would serve only to prolong the dying process. "Life-prolonging treatment" shall not include the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to alleviate pain; (12) "Medical order for scope of treatment" means an actionable medical order signed by a patient, a patient's legal surrogate, or a responsible party, and the patient's physician directing the use of life -sustaining treatment for the patient. A medical order for scope of tr eatment, if completed, shall implement or apply a health power of attorney or a living will directive if one exists; (13) "Permanently unconscious" means a condition which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, as determined solely by the patient' s attending physician and one (1) other physician on clinical examination, is characterized by an absence of cerebral cortical functions indicative of consciousness or behavioral interaction with the environment; (14) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of Kentucky; (15) "Responsible party" means an adult who has authority under KRS 311.631 to make a health care decision for a patient who has not executed a living will directive; (16) "Surrogate" means an adult who h as been designated to make health care decisions in accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643; and (17) "Terminal condition" means a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness which, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, as determined solely by the patient's attending physician and one (1) other physician, is incurable and irreversible and will result in death within a relatively short time, and where the application of life - prolonging treatment would serve only to artificially prolong the dying process.
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