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.
Medical school: means an educational facility created and operated as part of a program that grants the degree of doctor of medicine to the graduates of such educational facility or provides graduate medical education. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
Municipality: means any county, metropolitan government or incorporated city or town in this state located in a county having a population of not less than ninety-one thousand eight hundred (91,800), according to the 2000 federal census or any subsequent federal census. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
State: means the state of Tennessee and, unless otherwise indicated by the context, any agency, authority, branch, bureau, commission, corporation, department or instrumentality of the state, now or hereafter existing. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
(1) There is and is expected to be in the future a shortage of physicians and nurses, particularly primary care physicians in the state, and the existing schools in the state are not presently able to graduate sufficient numbers to avoid this shortage;(2) The creation of additional medical education facilities in the state will help mitigate the existing and expected shortage of physicians and nurses in this state;(3) The existence of a medical education facility within or adjacent to a municipality helps promote the quality of health care in that municipality and is a significant contributor to the economic growth of such municipalities;(4) It is in the best interests of the state to permit municipalities, as defined herein, to facilitate the creation of medical education schools within their jurisdiction or within jurisdictions adjacent to their jurisdiction; and(5) It is in the best interests of the state to permit the creation of medical school authorities, created by one (1) or more municipalities, to provide facilities to promote the creation and development of medical education facilities within their jurisdiction.(b) It is the purpose of this chapter to address these findings by providing for the establishment of authorities to plan, finance, construct, acquire, renovate, equip and enlarge educational and research facilities to be used for education of physicians, dentists, nurses and allied health professional.(c) This chapter shall be liberally construed in conformity with its purpose.
