Delaware Code Title 16. Health and Safety § 5171. Definitions

(1) “Department” shall mean the Department of Health and Social Services or its successor.

(2) “Double blind research” shall mean research in which neither the patient nor the physician knows whether the patient is receiving medication or a placebo.

(3) “Hospital” means the Delaware Psychiatric Center or such other hospital in this State which is certified by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services as being an appropriate facility for the diagnosis, care and treatment of mentally ill persons.

(4) “Informed consent” means the consent of a patient to the performance of health-care services by a health-care provider who has informed the patient both verbally and in writing, to an extent reasonably comprehensible to general lay understanding, of the nature of the proposed procedure or treatment and of the risks and alternatives to treatment which a reasonable patient would consider material to the decision whether or not to undergo the treatment.

(5) “Mentally ill person” means a person suffering from a mental disease or condition which requires such person to be observed and treated at the hospital for the person's own welfare.

(6) “Patient” means any patient at the hospital.

(7) “Psychiatrist” means a physician licensed to practice medicine specializing in the field of psychiatry or a physician employed by the hospital, registered with the Medical Council of Delaware and certified by the hospital medical director to the Medical Council of Delaware as being qualified in the diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill persons.