(a) Each hospital, recuperation center, nursing home, residential hospice, home for the aged, residential HIV supportive living facility, assisted-care living facility or ambulatory surgical treatment center licensed under this chapter, except those operated by the United States government, must ensure that an emergency keyed lock box is installed next to each bank of functioning elevators located on the main level. The lock boxes shall be permanently mounted seventy-two inches (72″) from the floor to the center of the box, be operable by a universal key, no matter where the box is located, and shall contain only fire service keys and drop keys for the appropriate elevators. General standards for the design of such boxes shall be approved by the department of labor and workforce development; provided, however, that the standards must be consistent with all applicable building and life safety standards governing the facility.

Attorney's Note

Under the Tennessee Code, punishments for crimes depend on the classification. In the case of this section:
ClassPrisonFine
class C misdemeanorup to 30 daysup to $50
For details, see Tenn. Code § 40-35-111

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-11-261

  • Ambulatory surgical treatment center: means any institution, place, or building devoted primarily to the maintenance and operation of a facility for the performance of surgical procedures or any facility in which a surgical procedure is utilized to terminate a pregnancy. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Assisted-care living facility: means a facility, building, establishment, complex or distinct part thereof that accepts primarily aged persons for domiciliary care and services as described in this section. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Facility: means any institution, place or building providing health care services that is required to be licensed under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Home for the aged: means a home represented and held out to the general public as a home which accepts primarily aged persons for relatively permanent, domiciliary care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency represented and held out to the general public as ready, willing and able to furnish care, accommodations, facilities and equipment for the use, in connection with the services of a physician or dentist, of one (1) or more nonrelated persons who may be suffering from deformity, injury or disease or from any other condition for which nursing, medical or surgical services would be appropriate for care, diagnosis or treatment. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Nursing home: means any institution, place, building or agency represented and held out to the general public for the express or implied purpose of providing care for one (1) or more nonrelated persons who are not acutely ill, but who do require skilled nursing care and related medical services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Recuperation center: means an establishment with permanent facilities that include inpatient beds, with an organized medical staff, and with medical services, including physician services and continuous nursing services, to provide treatment for patients who are not in an acute phase of illness, but who currently require primarily convalescent or restorative services, usually post-acute hospital care of relatively short duration. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • Residential hospice: means a licensed homelike residential facility designed, staffed and organized to provide hospice or HIV care services, or both, except the services shall be provided at the residential facility rather than the patient's regular or temporary place of residence. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) Failure to comply with this section shall be a Class C misdemeanor, and shall be punishable by a fine only of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).