Title 38

SECTION 46.1

46.1 Definitions.

§ 46.1 Definitions.

(a) Act means The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, as amended (42 U.S.C. 11101-11152).

(b) Claim of medical malpractice means a written claim or demand for payment based on an act or omission of a physician, dentist, or other health care practitioner in furnishing (or failing to furnish) health care services, and includes the filing of a complaint or administrative tort claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. 1346(b), 2671-2680.

(d) Dentist means a doctor of dental surgery or dental medicine legally authorized to practice dental surgery or dentistry by a State (or any individual who holds himself or herself out to be so authorized).

(e) Director means the duly appointed director of a Department of Veterans Affairs health care facility or any individual with authorization to act for that person in the director's absence.

(f) Gross negligence is materially worse than substandard care, and consists of an entire absence of care, or an absence of even slight care or diligence; it implies a thoughtless disregard of consequences or indifference to the rights of others.

(g) Health care facility means a hospital, domiciliary, outpatient clinic, or any other entity that provides health care services.

(h) Other health care practitioner means an individual other than a physician or dentist who is licensed or otherwise authorized by a State to provide health care services.

(i) Physician means a doctor of medicine or osteopathy authorized to practice medicine or surgery by a State (or any individual who holds himself or herself out to be so authorized).

(j) Professional review action means a recommendation by a professional review panel (with at least a majority vote) to affect adversely the clinical privileges of a physician or dentist taken as a result of a professional review activity based on the competence or professional conduct of an individual physician or dentist in cases in which such conduct affects or could affect adversely the health or welfare of a patient, or patients. An action is not considered to be based on the competence or professional conduct of a physician or dentist, if the action is primarily based on:

(1) A physician's or dentist's association with, administrative supervision of, delegation of authority to, support for, or training of, a member or members of a particular class of health care practitioner or professional, or

(2) Any other matter that does not relate to the competence or professional conduct of a physician or dentist in his/her practice at a Department of Veterans Affairs health care facility.

(k) Professional review activity means an activity with respect to an individual physician or dentist to establish a recommendation regarding:

(1) Whether the physician or dentist may have clinical privileges with respect to the medical staff of the facility;

(2) The scope or conditions of such privileges or appointment; or

(3) Change or modification of such privileges.

(l) State means the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territories or possessions of the United States.

(m) State Licensing Board means, with respect to a physician, dentist, or other health care practitioner in a State, the agency of the State, which is primarily responsible for the licensing of the physician, dentist, or practitioner to furnish health care services.

(n) Willful professional misconduct means worse than mere substandard care, and contemplates the intentional doing of something with knowledge that it is likely to result in serious injuries or in reckless disregard of its probable consequences.