Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 68 > HEALTH > Chapter 11 - Health Facilities and Resources

• Abuse: means the willful infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment with resulting physical harm, pain, or mental anguish. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Adult care home: means a single family residence licensed pursuant to this part in which twenty-four-hour residential care, including assistance with activities of daily living, is provided in a homelike environment to no more than five (5) adults who are elderly or have a disability. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Adult care home provider: means a person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who owns and operates an adult care home and meets all education, training and experience requirements prescribed in this part and in regulations promulgated by the board pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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
• Assisted-care living facility resident: means primarily an aged person who requires domiciliary care and who, upon admission to the facility, if not ambulatory, is capable of self-transfer from the bed to a wheelchair or similar device and is capable of propelling the wheelchair or similar device independently. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter and any assistant thereto by whatever name known, any district attorney general and any assistant thereto by whatever name called, and any officer or full-time employee of the general assembly or any committee thereof established by statute, who is duly licensed to practice law in Tennessee, whose duty it is to provide facilities for drafting bills or to assist individual legislators in drafting bills or who renders legal advice and services to the members of the general assembly or committees thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Birthing center: means any institution, facility, place or building devoted exclusively or primarily to the provision of routine delivery services and postpartum care for mothers and their newborn infants. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Board: means the board for licensing health care facilities, as established in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• 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
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Business records: means all those books, ledgers, records, papers and other documents prepared, kept, made or received at hospitals that pertain to the organization, administration or management of the business and affairs of hospitals, but that do not constitute hospital records as defined in subdivision (5). See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• 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
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• 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
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• classified service: includes all positions and employees in the sheriff's department, except for the sheriff, the sheriff's personal secretary, and the cook for the jail facility, and, in those counties deciding to do so, the chief deputy sheriff. See Tennessee Code 8-8-403
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• 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.
• Collector: includes any person entrusted with the collection of public revenue. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• commission: means the health facilities commission created by §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health, 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 health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1302
• 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
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conflict of interest: means a matter before the commission in which the member or employee of the commission has a direct interest or indirect interest that is in conflict or gives the appearance of conflict with the discharge of the member's or employee's duties. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• continuous nursing care: means round-the-clock observation, assessment, monitoring, supervision or provision of nursing services that can only be performed by a licensed nurse. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Cooperative agreement: means an agreement among two (2) or more hospitals for the consolidation by merger or other combination of assets, offering, provision, operation, planning, funding, pricing, contracting, utilization review or management of health services or for the sharing, allocation, or referral of patients, personnel, instructional programs, support services and facilities or medical, diagnostic or laboratory facilities or procedures or other services traditionally offered by hospitals. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1302
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• 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, compiled in 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
• County official: means a county clerk, a clerk of a circuit court, a criminal court, or a probate court, a clerk and master of a chancery court, a clerk of a general sessions court where such general sessions court has an independent clerk who serves such court only, a register of deeds, a county trustee, a sheriff, a county road superintendent elected by a county legislative body, by a county road commission or commissioners, or by popular vote, and an assessor of property, any county commissioner elected by popular vote, serving in a county having a county commission form of government. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• County or municipality: includes any county or incorporated city or town of this state. See Tennessee Code 68-11-602
• Credential analysis: means a process or service operating as outlined in rules promulgated by the secretary of state, through which a third person affirms the validity of a government-issued identification credential through review of public and proprietary data sources. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Criminal disposition: means the disposition of criminal charges constituting an offense against a vulnerable person, as that term is defined by this section, either by conviction, or by pretrial diversion authorized by any court pursuant to title 40, chapter 15, or by an order deferring further proceedings and placing an individual on probation by post-trial diversion issued pursuant to title 40, chapter 35. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• 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
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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.
• Dentist: means a doctor of dental science who is duly licensed to practice dentistry in this state. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1302
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1401
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-2101
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• 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
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• 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
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Electronic document: means information that is created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Electronic notarial certificate: means the portion of a notarized electronic document that is completed by an online notary public and contains the following:
  (A) The online notary public's electronic signature, electronic seal, title, and commission expiration date. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Electronic seal: means information within a notarized electronic document that confirms the online notary public's name, jurisdiction, identifying number, and commission expiration date and generally corresponds to information in notary seals used on paper documents. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Electronic signature: means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the electronic document. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• 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
• Equipment: includes , but is not limited to, X-ray machines, dental chairs, dental drills, autoclaves, refractometers, examining tables, dialysis equipment and all other equipment and instruments used and useful in the practice of medicine and dentistry. See Tennessee Code 68-11-602
• 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}
• Equivalent competitive procedures: means procedures that include the following:
  (A) Use of a notification procedure designed to reach prospective suppliers of goods or services likely to be interested, as well as able, to satisfy the requirement for such goods and services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1202
• Evaluation: means the determination and documentation of the physiological and functional factors that impact the selection of an appropriate seating and wheeled mobility device. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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 68-11-201
• Exploitation: means , in cases that are investigated by the department of human services, the improper use by a caretaker of funds that have been paid by a governmental agency to an adult or to the caretaker for the use or care of the adult. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• 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
• 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
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing board: means that group of persons designated as commissioners, directors, trustees or similar titles denoting responsibility for establishing policy and having ultimate authority for control of the management, operations and finances of a public body. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1202
• Governing body: includes the body or board by whatever name it may be known, charged with the governing of a municipality. See Tennessee Code 68-11-602
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Group purchasing program: means any plan, program or method that is intended to provide one (1) or more public bodies, or other governmental or nonprofit organizations, or other entities or persons, whether located in this state or elsewhere, with the opportunity to obtain goods or services at a discount or savings not otherwise available through the purchasing practices of a public body. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1202
• 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
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• 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 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
• HIV resident: means any individual who is in need of domiciliary care and who has been diagnosed and certified in writing by a licensed physician as being human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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
• 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
• Home health service: means a service provided an outpatient by an appropriately licensed health care professional or an appropriately qualified staff member of a licensed home care organization in accordance with orders recorded by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant, that includes one (1) or more of the following:
  (A) Skilled nursing care, including part-time or intermittent supervision. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Home medical equipment: means medical equipment intended for use by the consumer, including, but not limited to, the following:
  (i) A device, instrument, apparatus, machine, or other similar article whose label bears the statement: "Caution: Federal law requires dispensing by or on the order of a physician. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Home medical equipment provider: means any person who provides home medical equipment services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Home medical equipment services: means a service provided by any person who sells or rents home medical equipment for delivery to the consumer's place of residence in this state, regardless of the location of the home medical equipment provider. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Hospice patient: means only a person who has:
  (A) Been diagnosed as terminally ill. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Hospice services: means a coordinated program of care, under the direction of an identifiable hospice administrator, providing palliative and supportive medical and other services to hospice patients and their families in the patient's regular or temporary place of residence. 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
• Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency that has been licensed by the board, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Hospital: means :
  (A) Any institution required to be licensed as a hospital under §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1302
• Hospital records: means those medical histories, records, reports, summaries, diagnoses, prognoses, records of treatment and medication ordered and given, entries, X-rays, radiology interpretations, and other written, electronic, or graphic data prepared, kept, made or maintained in hospitals that pertain to hospital confinements or hospital services rendered to patients admitted to hospitals or receiving emergency room or outpatient care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Identity proofing: means a process or service operating according to criteria as outlined in rules promulgated by the secretary of state, through which a third person affirms the identity of an individual through review of personal information in public and proprietary data sources. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• In forma pauperis: In the manner of a pauper. Permission given to a person to sue without payment of court fees on claim of indigence or poverty.
• In-service: means a member who has not retired, has not been refunded and is within one hundred fifty (150) days of such member's last paid day of employment. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Independent living facility: means a single-family residence, building, establishment, or complex used as a boarding home. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• 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
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Intervenor: means any hospital, physician, allied health professional, healthcare provider or other person furnishing goods or services to, or in competition with, hospitals, insurer, hospital service corporation, medical service corporation, hospital and medical services corporation, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, or any employer or association that directly or indirectly provides health care benefits to its employees or members. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1302
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Law clerk: Assist judges with research and drafting of opinions.
• 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}
• Letter of intent: means the form prescribed by the commission that requires a brief project description, location, estimated project cost, owner of the project, and description of services to be performed. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• 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
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Medical arts building: means any building or buildings, including the site of the building or buildings, providing space suitable for the use of physicians or dentists, or both, as office space, emergency treatment rooms, laboratories, examining rooms, therapy rooms or other uses in connection with the practice of medicine or dentistry and the provision of health care, but does not include hospital facilities or overnight or extended care facilities. See Tennessee Code 68-11-602
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the retirement system, as provided in chapter 35, part 1 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Misappropriation: means any taking, possession or use of the property of a vulnerable person the elements of which constitute any criminal offense involving such property, or that constitute a violation of a fiduciary duty of a caretaker of a vulnerable person. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• Needs assessment: means an annual report that measures access to health care in this state, particularly as to emergency and primary care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Neglect: means the failure to provide goods and services necessary to avoid physical harm, mental anguish, or mental illness. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• 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
• Notarial act: means the performance by an online notary public of a function authorized under §. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• 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
• Nursing home bed: means :
  (A) A licensed bed within a nursing home, regardless of whether the bed is certified for medicare or medicaid services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1602
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Offense against a vulnerable person: means any act that constitutes abuse, neglect, misappropriation or exploitation of the property of a vulnerable person even if the act does not constitute a criminal act, or any crime the elements of which constitute abuse, neglect, or misappropriation or exploitation of the property of a vulnerable person. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Online notarization: means a notarial act performed by means of two-way video and audio conference technology that meets the standards adopted under §. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Online notary public: means a notary public who is a commissioned notary public and has been additionally commissioned to perform online notarizations as outlined in this part. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Oral surgeon: means a dentist who has been certified by the Tennessee board of dentistry to perform oral surgery. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Outpatient diagnostic center: except as otherwise limited in this subdivision (33), means any facility providing outpatient diagnostic services, unless the outpatient diagnostic services are provided as the services of another licensed healthcare institution that reports such outpatient diagnostic services on its joint annual report, or the facility is otherwise excluded from this subdivision (33). See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• outpatient diagnostic services: means the following services provided to any person who is not an inpatient of a hospital: computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, or other imaging technology developed after June 9, 2005, that provides substantially the same functionality as computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or positron emission tomography and for which a certificate of need is required by this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Part-time employee: includes any interim teacher who is employed on a temporary basis to teach for a regular teacher who is on unpaid leave. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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, outpatients, inpatients, persons dead on arrival, persons receiving emergency room care, and the newborn. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• 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
• Patient: includes , but is not limited to, any person who is suffering from an acute or chronic illness or injury or who is crippled, convalescent or infirm, or who is in need of obstetrical, surgical, medical, nursing or supervisory care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Person: means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, other business entity, state or local governmental agencies and entities, and federal agencies and entities to the extent permitted by federal law. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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: 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
• Personal 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
• 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
• physician: includes a podiatrist licensed under title 63, chapter 3. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• 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
• Prescribed child care center: means a nonresidential child care, health care/child care center providing physician prescribed services and appropriate developmental services for six (6) or more children who are medically or technology dependent and require continuous nursing intervention. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Principal: means an individual:
  (A) Whose electronic signature is notarized in an online notarization. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Prior service: means service rendered prior to the date of membership in the retirement system for which credit was given under the terms of one (1) or more of the superseded systems as provided in part 6 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Professional support services: means nursing and occupational, physical or speech therapy services provided to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities pursuant to a contract with the state agency financially responsible for such services. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Property: means all interests of any type in real property, and any interests of any type in personal property whether in moneys or financial instruments of any type, goods, furnishings, and similar property. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public body: means :
  (A) Any hospital organized and operating under the Metropolitan Hospital Authority Act, compiled in title 7, chapter 57, as it existed on or after May 1, 1990. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1202
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified rehabilitation professional: means :
  (A) A health care professional within the professional's scope of practice licensed under title 63. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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
• records: includes those records identified in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-401
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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
• 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
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Remote presentation: means transmission to the online notary public through communication technology of an image of a government-issued identification credential that is of sufficient quality to enable the online notary public to:
  (A) Identify the individual seeking the online notary public's services. See Tennessee Code 8-16-302
• Renal dialysis clinic: means any institution, facility, place or building devoted to the provision of renal dialysis on an outpatient basis to persons diagnosed with end stage renal disease. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• 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
• Resident manager: means a person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who lives in an adult care home and oversees the day-to-day operation of the adult care home on behalf of the adult care home provider and meets all education, training and experience requirements prescribed in this part and in regulations promulgated by the board pursuant to §. 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
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retirement: means the withdrawal from current files of hospital records, business records, or parts thereof on or after the expiration of the applicable period of retention established pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Retirement: means withdrawal from membership with a retirement allowance granted under chapters 34-37 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Retirement system: means the Tennessee consolidated retirement system as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Savings and loan association: includes a building and loan association, a federal or state savings and loan association, a federal savings bank, and any other financial institution, the accounts of which are insured by the federal savings and loan insurance corporation (FSLIC) or any successor of such corporation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• 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 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: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Substitute caregiver: means any person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who temporarily oversees care and services in an adult care home during the short-term absence of the adult care home provider or resident manager and meets all education, training and experience requirements prescribed in this part and in regulations promulgated by the board pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• 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.
• Traumatic brain injury residential home: means a facility owned and operated by a community-based traumatic brain injury (TBI) adult care home provider in which residential care, including assistance with activities of daily living, is provided in a homelike environment to disabled adults suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Traumatic brain injury residential home provider: means a person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who owns and operates a traumatic brain injury residential home. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Vulnerable person: means anyone who:
  (A) Is under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 68-11-1002
• Wheeled mobility device: means a wheelchair or wheelchair and seated positioning system prescribed by a physician and required for use by the patient for a period of six (6) months or more. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• 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