Definitions

§ 21–501. Definitions As used in the chapter: “administrator” means a person in charge of a public or private hospital or his delegate; “chief of service” means the physician charged with overall responsibility for the professional program of care and treatment in the particular administrative unit of the hospital to which the patient has been admitted or such other member of the medical staff as the chief of service designates; “Commission” means the Commission on Mental Health; “court” means the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; “mental illness” means a psychosis or other disease which substantially impairs the mental health of a person; “mentally ill person” means a person who has a mental illness, but does not include a person committed to a private or public hospital in the District of Columbia by order of the court in a criminal proceeding; “physician” means a person licensed under the laws of the District of Columbia to practice medicine, or a person who practices medicine in the employment of the Government of the United States or of the District of Columbia; “private hospital” means a nongovernmental hospital or institution, or part thereof, in the District of Columbia, equipped and qualified to provide inpatient care and treatment for a person suffering from a physical or mental illness; and “public hospital” means a hospital or institution, or part thereof, in the District, of Columbia, owned and operated by the Government of the United States or of the District of Columbia, equipped and qualified to provide inpatient, care and treatment for persons suffering from physical or mental illness.