(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-11-404

  • Custodian: means and includes the medical record practitioner and the administrator or other chief officer of a duly licensed hospital in this state and its proprietor, the appropriately designated person of a community mental health center, as well as their deputies and assistants, and any other persons who are official custodians or depositories of records. See Tennessee Code 68-11-401
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • 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
  • records: includes those records identified in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-401
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
(1) Unless the sealed envelope or wrapper is returned to a witness who is to appear personally, the copy of records shall remain sealed and shall be opened only at the time of trial, deposition or other hearing, upon the direction of the judge, court, officer, body or tribunal conducting the proceeding, in the presence of all parties who have appeared in person or by counsel at such trial, deposition or hearing. Before directing that such inner envelope or wrapper be opened, the judge, court, officer, body or tribunal shall first ascertain that either:

(A) The records have been subpoenaed at the instance of the patient involved or such patient’s counsel of record;
(B) The patient involved or someone authorized in such patient’s behalf to do so for such patient has consented thereto and waived any privilege of confidentiality involved; or
(C) The records have been subpoenaed in a criminal proceeding.
(2) Records that are not introduced in evidence or required as part of the record shall be returned to the person or entity from whom received.
(b)

(1) Upon receipt of a subpoena, the custodian shall send the records to the attorney responsible for the issuance of the subpoena at the place, and on or before the date designated in the subpoena, if such subpoena:

(A) States conspicuously on its face that the records are required in a tort action or proceeding in which the plaintiff has raised the issue of the plaintiff’s physical or emotional condition; and
(B) Directs the custodian’s attendance at a deposition.
(2) The attorney responsible for the issuance of the subpoena need not meet the requirements of subsection (a) before opening the sealed records, if the attorney furnishes a copy of the records to the plaintiff or someone authorized on the plaintiff’s behalf to receive them.
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