§ 14-112. Definitions.

For purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)

Acute pain is the normal, predicted physiological response to an adverse chemical, thermal or mechanical stimulus and is associated with surgery, trauma, or illness. It is generally short-lived. Acute pain responses may vary between patients and between pain episodes within an individual patient. Acute pain episodes may be present in patients with chronic pain.

(2)

Business, profession, or occupation means either a commercial enterprise, vocation requiring advanced education and training, activity or employment, engaged in for livelihood or gain. It does not include the customary religious, charitable or educational activities of nonprofit religious, charitable or educational institutions in this county, which institutions are more particularly defined and limited as follows:

a.

Religious institutions means churches and ecclesiastical or denominational organizations or established physical places for worship in this state at which nonprofit religious services and activities are regularly conducted and carried on, and also means church cemeteries.

b.

Educational institutions means state tax-supported or parochial, church and nonprofit private schools, colleges, or universities conducting regular classes and courses of study required for accreditation by or membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the Florida Department of Education, or the Florida Council of Independent Schools. Nonprofit libraries, art galleries, and museums open to the public are defined as educational institutions and eligible for exemption.

c.

Charitable institutions means only nonprofit corporations operating physical facilities in this state at which are provided charitable services, a reasonable percentage of which are without cost to those unable to pay.

(3)

Chronic pain means pain which includes one (1) or more of the following characteristics: (i) the pain persists beyond the usual course of a disease that is the cause of the pain; (ii) the pain persists beyond the expected time for healing from an injury or trauma that is the cause of the pain; or (iii) the pain is associated with long-term incurable or intractable medical illness or disease. It is not amenable to routine pain control methods. Patients with chronic pain may have either continuous or intermittent pain, including episodes of acute pain related to disease progression or reoccurrence.

(4)

Code enforcement officer means any designated employee or agent of Osceola County whose duty it is to enforce codes and ordinances enacted by Osceola County, or designated employee or agent of the municipalities whose duty it is to enforce codes and ordinances of the municipalities, respectively. Employees or agents who may be code enforcement officers for purposes of this article may include, but are not limited to, code inspectors, law enforcement officers and law enforcement civilian employees, animal control officers, building inspectors, or fire safety inspectors.

(5)

Controlled substance means controlled substances listed in schedule II, schedule III, or schedule IV, in F.S. § 893.03, recognized as effective for pain relief, including, but not limited to, the following: buprenophrine, butorphenol, carisoprodol, codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, levorphanol, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and propoxyphene. Additionally, the term includes benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam, when prescribed in addition to or directly preceding or following another prescription for a controlled substance for pain relief. However, the term does not include suboxone, which contains a mixture of buprenophine and naloxone.

(6)

Employee, employs, employed, employ or employment shall include persons who are salaried, hourly, full-time, part-time, independent contractors, subcontractors, persons receiving 1099 IRS forms, or volunteers.

(7)

Health care physician or physician means any practitioner who is subject to licensure or regulation by the Florida Department of Health under F.S. ch. 458 (physician) or F.S. ch. 459 (osteopathic physician).

(8)

Intractable pain means pain for which, in the generally accepted course of medical practice, the cause cannot be removed or otherwise treated.

(9)

Occupational license or local business tax receipt means the method by which Osceola County government grants the privilege of engaging in or managing any business, profession or occupation within its jurisdiction, and evidences that the person in whose name the document is issued has complied with the provisions of F.S. ch. 205. It does not mean any fees paid to or licenses received from any board, commission, officer or municipality for permits, registration, examination, or inspection. Unless otherwise provided by law, these are deemed to be regulatory and in addition to, but not in lieu of, any occupational license imposed under the provisions of chapter 13, article II of the Code of Ordinances of Osceola County, Florida.

(10)

Pain means an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. Categories of pain include acute pain, intractable pain, or chronic pain.

(11)

Pain management means the use of pharmacological and non pharmacological interventions to control the patient's identified pain. Pain management often extends beyond pain relief, encompassing the patient's quality of life, ability to work productively, to enjoy recreation, and to function normally in family and society.

(12)

Pain management clinic means a privately owned clinic, facility, or office, whatever its title, including, but not limited to, a "wellness center," "urgent care facility," or "detox center," which engages in pain management. This definition includes the following:

a.

A pain management clinic must have at least one (1) of the following characteristics:

1.

It employs one (1) or more physicians licensed under F.S. ch. 458 or 459, or employs any other person with authority to issue prescriptions of controlled substances under the Florida Statutes, who in a single day issues more than twenty (20) prescriptions of a controlled substance for the treatment of pain;

2.

It holds itself out through advertising as being in business to prescribe or dispense a controlled substance for the treatment of pain;

3.

It holds itself out through advertising as being in business to provide services for the treatment of pain wherein the services are accompanied with prescription of or dispensing of a controlled substance for the treatment of pain; or

4.

It meets the definition of pain management clinic in F.S. § 458.3265, as may be amended from time to time.

b.

A pain management clinic does not include any privately owned clinic, medical facility or office which has at least one (1) of the following characteristics:

1.

It employs physicians, the majority of whom provide services in the clinic, facility, or office; primarily provide surgical services as measured over a month time period and which limit pain management services to a period of no greater than ninety (90) days for any patient;

2.

It is licensed as a facility pursuant to F.S. ch. 395 (hospitals, etc.), excluding outpatient facilities that provide pain management services as outlined in subsection (12)a. above; or

3.

It does not prescribe or dispense controlled substances for the treatment of pain.

(13)

Person means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, or other group or combination acting as a unit, association, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, trustee, executor, manager, receiver, or other fiduciary, and includes the plural as well as the singular.

(14)

Pharmacy shall mean the same as that term is defined in F.S. § 465.003, as may be amended from time to time, and includes community pharmacy, internet pharmacy, and special pharmacy, but does not include institutional pharmacy or nuclear pharmacy, as each of those terms are used in that section.

(15)

Pill mill is a doctor, or other person with authority to issue prescriptions of controlled substances under the Florida Statutes, clinic, or pharmacy that is prescribing or dispensing controlled substances inappropriately, unlawfully, or for nonmedical reasons. Its operations and practices do not comply with the requirements of federal law, Florida Statutes and regulations, or this article.

(16)

Surgical services shall mean the practice that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of oral health, injury, deformity, and disease by in which part of the body is entered by puncture or incision and treatment takes place through manual and instrumental means.

(Ord. No. 2012-34, § 1, 10-8-12)