(a) The department shall investigate reports of serious abuse, dereliction or deficiency in the operation of a licensed service or facility.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 33-2-416

  • Abuse: means the knowing infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment with resulting physical harm, pain, or mental anguish. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services, the commissioner's authorized representative, or in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Facility: means a treatment resource, rehabilitation center, hospital, community mental health center, counseling center, clinic, group home, halfway house or any other entity that provides a mental health, service or an alcohol and drug abuse prevention and/or treatment facility. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
  • Service: includes any activity to prevent, treat, or ameliorate mental illness, serious emotional disturbance or alcohol or drug use which includes diagnosis, evaluation, residential assistance, training, habilitation, rehabilitation, prevention, treatment, counseling, case coordination, or supervision of persons with mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse issues and serious emotional disturbances. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
(b)

(1) A person making any report or investigation pursuant to this part, including representatives of the department in the reasonable performance of their duties and within the scope of their authority, shall be presumed to be acting in good faith and shall be immune from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed.
(2) Any such person shall have the same immunity with respect to participation in any judicial proceeding resulting from the report or investigation.
(3) Any person making a report under this part shall have a civil cause of action for appropriate compensatory and punitive damages against any person who causes a detrimental change in the employment status of the reporting party by reason of the report.
(c)

(1) The commissioner shall suspend or revoke the license of any service or facility if serious abuse, dereliction or deficiency is found and not corrected in a reasonable time.
(2) The commissioner, in the commissioner’s discretion, may suspend enrollment in a service or facility pending resolution of the investigation or of proceedings to suspend, revoke, or deny the license, or until the service or facility corrects any serious abuse, dereliction, or deficiency found in the course of the investigation. The commissioner may suspend enrollment in a licensed service or facility based on probable cause to believe that serious abuse, dereliction, or deficiency in the operation of the licensed service or facility has occurred or would occur without suspension of enrollment. Suspension of enrollment shall not exceed a period of one hundred twenty (120) days except that, in the discretion of the commissioner, the period may be extended for an additional period not to exceed one hundred twenty (120) days. Nothing in this part takes away from the right of the department to issue an order of summary suspension of the license pursuant to § 4-5-320(c) and (d).
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