The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Act" means P.L. 2001, c. 373 (approved January 8, 2002, effective January 1, 2001), codified in part at 26:2-103.1 et seq.
"Audiologic evaluation" means audiologic evaluation as that term is described in the JCIH Position Statement.
"Auditory Brainstem Response" or "ABR" means a physiologic measure used for detecting unilateral or bilateral hearing loss by measuring the activity of the cochlea, auditory nerve, and auditory brainstem pathways.
"Birth attendant" means a person who attends and assists during the birth of a child.
"Birthing center" means an ambulatory care facility or a distinct part of a facility that is separately licensed as an ambulatory care facility and provides routine prenatal and intrapartal care. These facilities provide care to low-risk maternity patients who are expected to deliver neonates of a weight greater than 2,499 grams and at least 37 weeks gestational age and who require a stay of less than 24 hours after birth.
"Birthing facility" means a health care facility that provides birthing and newborn care services and includes birthing centers.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Health.
"Decibel" or "dB" means a unit of sound intensity, based on a logarithmic relationship of one intensity to a reference intensity.
"Decibels hearing level" or "dBHL" means decibel notation used on the audiogram that is referenced to audiometric zero.
"Decibels normalized hearing level" or "dBnHL" means decibel notation referenced to behavioral thresholds of a sample of normal hearing persons, used most often to describe the intensity level of click stimuli used in evoked potential audiometry.
"Department" means the Department of Health.
"Distortion product otoacoustic emissions" or "DPOAE" means responses generated in response to two continuous pure-tones, referred to as "primaries," and occurring at frequencies that relate mathematically to the frequency of the primaries.
"EBC" means the Electronic Birth Certificate or the Electronic Birth Certificate Registration System.
"EHDI module" means the part of the NJIIS that is enabled to receive results of newborn hearing screening, rescreening and audiologic evaluation and to receive lost to hearing follow-up reports.
"Facility" means a licensed healthcare facility.
"Hearing loss" means a hearing loss of 30dB or greater in the frequency region important for speech recognition and comprehension in one or both ears, which is approximately 500 through 4,000 hertz (Hz).
"Hearing screening" means the application of a physiologic hearing screening measure.
"JCIH Position Statement" means the "Year 2007 Position Statement: Principles and Guidelines for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Programs," of the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH), incorporated herein by reference, as amended and supplemented, published in Pediatrics, Vol. 120, No. 4, pp. 898-921 (October 2007), which is available :
1. From the American Academy of Pediatrics, 345 Park Blvd., Itasca, IL 60143, telephone: (800) 433-9016 and (630) 626-6000, telefacsimile: (847) 434-8000, website: http://www.aap.org;
2. From the JCIH website at http://www.jcih.org; and
3. Upon request to the Division of Family Health Services of the Department.
"Lost to Hearing Follow-up Report" means submission of either the form at N.J.A.C. 8:19 Appendix C, incorporated herein by reference, to the EHDI, or the information required therein by means of the NJIIS.
1. The form is available upon request from the EHDI and can be downloaded from the Department website at www.nj.gov/health/forms.
1. The form is available upon request from the EHDI, and can be downloaded from the Department website at www.nj.gov/health/forms.
"New Jersey Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program" or "EHDI" means the program within the Department that implements the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening program pursuant to P.L. 2001, c. 373, for which the contact information is Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program, NJ Department of Health, PO Box 364, Trenton, NJ 08625-0364, telephone (609) 292-5676, TTY (609) 984-1343, telefacsimile (609) 633-7820, website
"New Jersey Immunization Information System" or "NJIIS" means the New Jersey Immunization Information System established pursuant to P.L. 2004, c. 138 (26:4-131 et seq.) and N.J.A.C. 8:57-3.
"Otoacoustic emissions" (OAE) means a physiologic measure used for detecting unilateral or bilateral hearing loss by measuring the responses generated within the cochlea by the outer hair cells, by means of either DPOAE or TEOAE. OAE evaluation does not detect neural dysfunction.
"Ototoxic drug monitoring procedures" means the procedures for monitoring patients who are treated with ototoxic medications.
"Ototoxic medication" means a medication that has a toxic action upon the ear resulting in possible hearing loss.
"Parent" means a biological parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, legal guardian or other legal custodian of the child.
"Pass" means, with respect to hearing screening or rescreening, achieve a result that indicates adequate hearing for normal speech and language development using either:
1. DPOAE or TEOAE; or
2. ABR screening at or below an intensity level of 35 dBnHL.
"Physiologic hearing screening measure" means the electrical result of the application of physiologic agents by means of either ABR or OAE, and is also known as electrophysiologic hearing screening measure, as used in 26:2-103.2.
"Rescreening" means the application of a physiologic hearing screening measure subsequent to the performance of an initial hearing screening.
"Responsible physician" means the infant's medical home or the physician that will be providing well child care for the infant.
"Special Child Health Services Registration" means Department form number SCH-0 with this title, used for reporting children with special health care needs, which appears at subchapter Appendix B, incorporated herein by reference. The form is available from the Department's forms page at www.nj.gov/health/forms and upon request to the EHDI.
"Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions" or "TEOAE" means frequency-specific responses evoked by brief acoustic stimuli, such as clicks or tone bursts, that generally appear up to 20 milliseconds after stimuli are delivered to the ear.
N.J. Admin. Code § 8:19-1.1