Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 4 > Chapter 21 > Part 3 - Violations-Procedures

• Advance directive: means an individual instruction or a written statement relating to the subsequent provision of health care for the individual, including, but not limited to, a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Agent: means an individual designated in an advance directive for health care to make a health care decision for the individual granting the power. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Agriculture: means :
  (i) The land, buildings and machinery used in the commercial production of farm products and nursery stock. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assessed value: means value as assessed for municipal property tax purposes. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Bailiff: a court officer who enforces the rules of behavior in courtrooms.
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Board: means the board of assessment commissioners. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Board: means the board for licensing healthcare facilities. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Board: means the board for licensing health care facilities. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2101
• Capable of providing neuroendovascular treatment: means the capacity to:
  (A) Properly assess, diagnose using advanced imaging devices, and treat stroke patients with complex cases of ischemic stroke, including emergent large vessel occlusion causing the loss of blood supply to a part of the brain and requiring immediate treatment at a facility with a trained team of neurointerventional surgeons, vascular neurologists, and assisting medical personnel. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2101
• Capacity: means an individual's ability to understand the significant benefits, risks, and alternatives to proposed health care and to make and communicate a health care decision. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• central business improvement district: means the central business improvement district created by the establishment ordinance of the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Certificate of need: means a permit granted by the health facilities commission to a person for those services specified as requiring a certificate of need under §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Commission: means the Tennessee human rights commission. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Commission: means the health facilities commission. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2301
• Commissioner: means any person in office as a member of the public service commission, as prescribed by title 65, chapter 1, prior to June 30, 1996. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controlling person: means :
  (A) A business entity, officer, program administrator, or director whose responsibilities include the direction of the management or policies of a temporary healthcare staffing agency. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2301
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Countermeasure: means a vaccine or the component parts used in the design, development, clinical testing or investigation or manufacture of a vaccine, including seed stocks, cell lines and plasmids, used to diagnose, mitigate, prevent, treat, cure or otherwise limit the harm of an infectious disease that is:
  (A) Approved or cleared under Chapter V of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1901
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2101
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Designated physician: means a physician designated by an individual or the individual's agent, guardian, or surrogate, to have primary responsibility for the individual's health care or, in the absence of a designation or if the designated physician is not reasonably available, a physician who undertakes such responsibility. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Direct interest: means a pecuniary interest in the persons involved in a matter before the commission, and applies to the commission member or employee, the commission member's or employee's relatives, or an individual with whom or business in which the member or employee has a pecuniary interest. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Discriminatory practices: means any direct or indirect act or practice of exclusion, distinction, restriction, segregation, limitation, refusal, denial, or any other act or practice of differentiation or preference in the treatment of a person or persons because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age or national origin. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• District: means the central business district created by ordinance or resolution by a municipality, or a corridor of central business districts created by joint agreement of two (2) or more municipalities. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• District management corporation: means the board or organization created or appointed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Drug abuse: means a condition characterized by the continuous or episodic use of a drug or drugs that results in social impairment, vocational impairment, psychological dependence, or pathological patterns of use. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2001
• Employer: means :
  (A) The state or any department, commission, institution, board or agency of the state government by which a member is paid, with respect to members in its employ. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Employer: means the state, or any political or civil subdivision thereof, and persons employing eight (8) or more persons within the state, or any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Establishment ordinance: means the ordinance of the governing body adopted pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive director: means the executive director of the health facilities commission. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2301
• Facility: means real property owned, leased, or used by a healthcare institution for any purpose, other than as an investment. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Facility: means a hospital operating room or hospital emergency room department. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2203
• Facility-provided medication: means a topical antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, dilation, or glaucoma drop or ointment that a facility employee has on standby or that is retrieved from a dispensing system for a specified patient for use during a procedure or visit. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2203
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the council, commission, board or other body exercising general legislative power in the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Guardian: means a judicially appointed guardian or conservator having authority to make a health care decision for an individual. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Health care: means any care, treatment, service or procedure to maintain, diagnose, treat, or otherwise affect an individual's physical or mental condition, and includes medical care as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Health care decision: means consent, refusal of consent or withdrawal of consent to health care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Health care institution: means a health care institution as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Health care institution: means any publicly or privately owned or operated institution, facility, center, or place licensed by the department of health that provides health services for patients that engage in drug abuse. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2001
• Health care provider: means a person who is licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by the laws of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business in practicing of a profession. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Health care provider: means a person licensed under title 63 or this title to provide health care or related services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2001
• Healthcare facility: means a nursing home or an assisted-care living facility as those terms are defined by §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2301
• Healthcare research institution: includes any or all of the parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors and assigns of the institution, and any or all individual trustees, officers, directors, employees, and agents of the institution. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1901
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Home care organization: means an entity licensed as such by the commission that is staffed and organized to provide "home health services" or "hospice services" as defined by §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Indirect interest: means a personal interest in the persons involved in a matter before the commission that is in conflict with the discharge of the commission member's or employee's duties. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Individual instruction: means an individual's direction concerning a health care decision for the individual. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Indwelling catheter: means a proprietary indwelling device that is inserted under a patient's skin to provide long-term IV access for administering blood products, prescribed medication, high-dose chemotherapy, or other treatments. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2001
• Initiating petition: means the petition filed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Initiating resolution: means the resolution adopted by the governing body pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Licensed beds: means the number of beds licensed by the commission having licensing jurisdiction over the facility in which the beds are located. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Livestock: means all equine as well as animals that are being raised primarily for use as food or fiber for human utilization or consumption including, but not limited to, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and poultry. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Municipality: means any incorporated city, town or metropolitan government of this state exercising general governmental functions in the state. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Nonresidential substitution-based treatment center for opiate addiction: includes , but is not limited to, stand-alone clinics offering methadone, products containing buprenorphine such as Subutex and Suboxone, or products containing any other formulation designed to treat opiate addiction by preventing symptoms of withdrawal. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Owner: means record owner in fee, or a duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Patient: includes , but is not limited to, a person who has an acute or chronic physical or mental illness or injury. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Person: includes one (1) or more individuals, governments, governmental agencies, public authorities, labor organizations, corporations, legal representatives, partnerships, associations, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers, mutual companies, joint stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations or other organized groups of persons. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Person: means an individual, corporation, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Person: means an individual, firm, corporation, partnership, or association. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2301
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personally informing: means a communication by any effective means from the patient directly to a health care provider. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Physician: means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under title 63, chapter 6 or 9. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Power of attorney for health care: means the designation of an agent to make health care decisions for the individual granting the power. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Prescriber: means an individual authorized by law to prescribe drugs. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2203
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Reasonably available: means readily able to be contacted without undue effort and willing and able to act in a timely manner considering the urgency of the patient's health care needs. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Rehabilitation facility: means an inpatient or residential facility that is operated for the primary purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of physically disabled persons through an integrated program of medical and other services that is provided under professional supervision. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• relative: means a spouse, parent, child, stepparent, stepchild, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew by blood, marriage, or adoption. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Review cycle: means the timeframe set for the review and initial decision on applications for certificate of need applications that have been deemed complete, with the fifteenth day of the month being the first day of the review cycle. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Service: means service as a general employee, a teacher, a state police officer, a wildlife officer, a firefighter, a police officer, a state judge, a county judge, an attorney general, a commissioner or a county official which is paid for by an employer, and also includes service for which a former member of the general assembly is entitled to under former §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State health plan: means the plan that is developed by the state health planning division pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stroke-related designation: means a designation including, but not limited to, a comprehensive stroke center, primary stroke center, acute stroke-ready hospital, or other stroke-related designation approved by rule by the board in consultation with the emergency medical services board. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2101
• Student: means any person enrolled in a course of study in a school or in a post-secondary educational institution who as a condition of such enrollment is employed in a full-time position. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surrogate: means an individual, other than a patient's agent or guardian, authorized under this part to make a health care decision for the patient. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Treating health care provider: means a health care provider who at the time is directly or indirectly involved in providing health care to the patient. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1802
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Willful misconduct: means an act or omission that is taken:
  (A) Intentionally to achieve a wrongful purpose. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1901
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105