---
title: O.C.G.A. § 31-7-51. Definitions.
collection: code
id: 31-7-51
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 31-7-51 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7-51
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7-51.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7-51/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t31-(v23)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=da7ded69_0#page=339
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7-50.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-7-52.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: HEALTH / REGULATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF HOSPITALS AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES / GRANTS FOR CONSTRUCTION AND MODERNIZATION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 31-7-51. Definitions.

(a) As used in this article, the term:

(1) “Auxiliary medical facilities” means diagnostic and treatment facilities, nursing homes, chronic illness hospitals, and rehabilitation centers.

(2) “Construction project” means a program for the construction of any medical facility or auxiliary medical facility or mental health center, as evidenced by the approval of a project under Title VI or Title VII of the federal Public Health Service Act, as now or hereafter amended.

(3) “Hospital authority” means any hospital authority created under the “Hospital Authorities Law,” Article 4 of this chapter, as now or hereafter amended.

(4) “Medical facilities” means general hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, nurse training facilities, tuberculosis hospitals, and public health centers.

(5) “Mental health center” means a facility providing services for the prevention or diagnosis of mental illness, or care and treatment of mentally ill patients, or rehabilitation of such persons, which services are provided principally for persons residing in a particular community or communities in or near which the facility is situated.

(6) Reserved.

(7) “Modernization project” means the alteration, major repair, remodeling, replacement, and renovation of existing buildings (including original equipment thereof) and replacement of obsolete, built-in equipment of existing buildings, as evidenced by the approval of a project under Title VI or Title VII of the federal Public Health Service Act, as now or hereafter amended.

(8) “Publicly operated” means operated by a county, municipality, hospital authority, or any combination thereof.

(9) “Publicly owned” means that a county, municipality, hospital authority, or any combination thereof holds title to or has a long-term lease acceptable to the state agency on the property on which the construction or modernization is proposed.

(10) “State agency” means the State Health Planning and Development Agency or any successor designated as the agency of state government to administer the state construction and modernization plan and receive funds pursuant to Titles VI and VII of the federal Public Health Service Act, as amended.

(b) The terms “hospital,” “psychiatric hospital,” “nurse training facilities,” “public health center,” “rehabilitation facility,” “nursing home,” “chronic illness hospital,” “long-term care facility,” “mental health center,” “construction,” “cost of construction,” “modernization,” and “cost of modernization” shall have meanings consistent with those respectively ascribed to them in Titles VI and VII of the federal Public Health Service Act, as now or hereafter amended.

## History

Code 1933, § 88-2102, enacted by Ga. L. 1966, p. 716, § 1; Ga. L. 1996, p. 6, § 31; Ga. L. 2015, p. 385, § 4-3/HB 252.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2015, p. 385, § 1-1/HB 252, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘J. Calvin Hill, Jr., Act.’”

## U.s. Code.

Titles VI and VII of the Public Health Service Act, as amended, referred to in this Code section, are codified as 42 U.S.C. §§ 291 et seq. and 292a et seq., respectively.