The Florida Senate

400.462  Definitions.--As used in this part, the term:

(1)  "Certified nursing assistant" means any person who has been issued a certificate after fulfilling the requirements of s. 400.211.

(2)  "Companion" or "sitter" means a person who cares for an elderly, handicapped, or convalescent individual and accompanies such individual on trips and outings and may prepare and serve meals to such individual.

(3)  "Department" means the ¹Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

(4)  "Home health agency" means an organization that provides home health services and staffing services for health care facilities.

(5)  "Home health agency personnel" means persons who are employed by or under contract with a home health agency and enter the home or place of residence of patients at any time in the course of their employment or contract.

(6)  "Home health services" means health and medical services and medical supplies furnished to an individual by home health agency personnel or by others under arrangements with the agency, on a visiting basis, in the individual's home or place of residence. The term includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(a)  Nursing care.

(b)  Physical, occupational, respiratory, or speech therapy.

(c)  Home health aide services.

(d)  Nutritional guidance.

(e)  Medical supplies, restricted to drugs and biologicals prescribed by a physician.

(7)  "Homemaker" means a person who performs household chores that include housekeeping, meal planning and preparation, shopping assistance, and routine household activities for an elderly, handicapped, or convalescent individual.

(8)  "Nurse registry" means any person that procures, offers, promises, or attempts to secure health-care-related contracts for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, sitters, companions, or homemakers, who are compensated by fees as independent contractors, including, but not limited to, contracts for the provision of services to patients and contracts to provide private duty or staffing services to health care facilities licensed under chapter 395 or this chapter.

(9)  "Patient" means any person who receives home health services in his or her home or place of residence.

(10)  "Screening" means the assessment of the background of home health agency personnel, nurse registry personnel, and persons registered under s. 400.509 and includes employment history checks, records checks of the department's central abuse hotline under chapter 415 relating to vulnerable adults, and statewide criminal records correspondence checks through the Department of Law Enforcement.

(11)  "Staffing services" means services provided to a health care facility on a temporary basis by licensed health care personnel, including certified nursing assistants.

History.--s. 38, ch. 75-233; s. 2, ch. 81-318; ss. 62, 79, 83, ch. 83-181; s. 12, ch. 85-167; s. 1, ch. 87-123; s. 2, ch. 88-219; s. 1, ch. 88-323; s. 1, ch. 90-101; s. 31, ch. 90-306; s. 2, ch. 90-319; s. 25, ch. 91-57; s. 28, ch. 91-263; ss. 2, 23, ch. 93-214; s. 781, ch. 95-148; s. 56, ch. 95-228.

¹Note.--The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services was redesignated as the Department of Children and Family Services by s. 5, ch. 96-403, and the Department of Health was created by s. 8, ch. 96-403.