The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 18 : Health
Chapter 043 : Licensing of Hospitals
(Cite as: 18 V.S.A. § 1902)-
§ 1902. Definitions
The following words and phrases, as used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless otherwise provided:
(1) “Hospital” means a place devoted primarily to the maintenance and operation of diagnostic and therapeutic facilities for in-patient medical or surgical care of individuals who have an illness, disease, injury, or physical disability, or for obstetrics.
(A) “General hospital” is a hospital of which not more than 50 percent of the total patient days during the year are customarily assignable to the following categories of cases: chronic, convalescent and rest, drug and alcoholic, epilepsy, developmental and psychiatric disabilities and mental conditions, and tuberculosis and that provides adequate and separate facilities and equipment for the performance of surgery and obstetrics, or either, and for diagnostic X-ray and laboratory services.
(B) “Psychiatric hospital” means a hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
(C) “Tuberculosis facility” means a hospital (excluding preventoria), or the separate tuberculosis unit of a general, psychiatric, or chronic disease hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.
(D) “Chronic disease facility” means a hospital, or the separate chronic disease unit of a general hospital, for the treatment of chronic illness, including the degenerative diseases. The term does not include facilities primarily for the care of individuals with mental conditions and psychiatric disabilities or tuberculosis, nursing homes, and institutions the primary purpose of which is domiciliary care.
(E) “Maternity hospital” means a hospital that receives maternity patients exclusively, for care during pregnancy, during delivery, or within 10 days after delivery.
(F) “Nonprofit hospital” means any hospital owned and operated by a corporation or association, no part of the net earnings of which is applied, or may lawfully be applied, to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
(G) “Proprietary hospital” means any hospital operated for individual gain or reward.
(H) “Psychiatric facility” means a type of psychiatric hospital, or separate unit of a general hospital, where patients may obtain diagnostic services and receive intensive treatment for mental illness and where only a minimum of continued treatment facilities will be afforded.
(I) The provisions of this subdivision (1) do not apply to any of the following institutions:
(i) nursing and convalescent homes, boarding homes, homes for the aged, nurseries, and institutions used primarily for domiciliary care;
(ii) any hospital conducted, maintained, or operated by the U.S. government or a duly authorized agency thereof.
(2) “Person” means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, or joint stock association, and the legal successor thereof.
(3) “Governmental unit” means a state, or political subdivision thereof, or any department, division, board, or other agency of any of the foregoing.
(4) “Licensing agency” means the Department of Health. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 27, eff. March 1, 1961; 1963, No. 154, § 2; 2003, No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 141d; 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 96; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 65; 2023, No. 53, § 76, eff. June 8, 2023.)
