Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 68 > SAFETY > Chapter 140 - Emergency Services

• Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all the amounts deducted from the compensation of a member, together with any amount transferred to the account of the member established pursuant to chapters 34-37 of this title from the respective account of the member under one (1) or more of the superseded systems, with interest thereon, as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Actuarial equivalent: means a benefit of equal value when computed at regular interest upon the basis of the mortality tables last adopted for such purpose by the board of trustees. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Ambulance: means any privately or publicly owned land or air vehicle that is especially designed, constructed or modified and equipped and is intended to be used for and is maintained or operated for transportation upon the streets, highways or airways in this state for persons who are sick, injured, wounded, otherwise incapacitated, helpless, or in need of medical care. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Ambulance service: means the principal use of any privately or publicly owned ambulance for the transportation of injured or infirm persons. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• 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.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Authorization: means any and all forms of official permission required by this part, including licenses, permits and certificates. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Authorized entity: means an entity or organization at which allergens capable of causing anaphylaxis may be present, including, but not limited to, a recreation camp, college, university, place of worship, youth sports league, amusement park, restaurant, place of employment, and sports arena. See Tennessee Code 68-140-501
• Average final compensation: means the average annual earnable compensation of a member during the five (5) consecutive years of the member's creditable service affording the highest such average, or during all of the years in the member's creditable service if less than five (5) years. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Beneficiary: means any person, persons or institution receiving a retirement allowance or other benefit as provided in chapters 34-37 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Board: means the Tennessee emergency medical services board. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Certificate: means official acknowledgment that an individual has successfully complied with all requirements to practice and has completed a training program accredited or recognized by the board. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Child: includes any individual, adopted or natural born, entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved and excludes any person who is only a stepchild, a foster child, a grandchild or any more remote descendant. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• 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
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health, the commissioner's duly authorized representative, or in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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 disaster: A sudden and extraordinary misfortune that brings about the simultaneous or near-simultaneous deaths of two or more associated persons, such as husband and wife.
• Community paramedic: means an individual who:
  (A) Is licensed as a paramedic that delivers care in emergency and non-urgent pre-hospital settings with oversight of a physician. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Creditable service: means prior service plus membership service, as provided in part 6 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Date of establishment: means the date as of which the retirement system is established as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• defibrillator: means an automated external defibrillator. See Tennessee Code 68-140-402
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-140-501
• Devise: when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Devisee: means any person designated in a will to receive a devise. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• Director: means the director of the division of emergency medical services of the department. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• disabled: means the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than twelve (12) months. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Disclaimant: means the person to whom a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• Disclaimed interest: means the interest that would have passed to the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• Disclaimer: means the refusal to accept an interest in or power over property. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Earnable compensation: includes , but is not limited to, any bonus or incentive payment. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• EMAC: means the national interstate mutual aid agreement adopted by all fifty (50) states, the District of Columbia, the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and ratified by the 104th United States Congress in 1996 (PL-104-321) that enables states to share resources during times of disaster created during the 104th Congress. See Tennessee Code 68-140-603
• Emergency medical entity: means any singular facility, providing emergency medical services to the general public, either resident or transient, in this state. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Emergency medical services: means the services used in responding to the perceived individual need for immediate medical care in order to prevent loss of life or aggravation of physiological or psychological illness or injury. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Emergency medical services personnel: means individuals certified or licensed by the emergency medical services board in accordance with various categories and classifications of licenses or certificates that the board establishes. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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
• Epinephrine auto-injector: means a single-use device used to administer by automatic injection a premeasured dose of epinephrine into the body of a person. See Tennessee Code 68-140-501
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Fiduciary: means a personal representative, trustee, agent acting under a power of attorney, or other person authorized to act as a fiduciary with respect to the property of another person. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Firefighter: means a person in the employ of a political subdivision participating under chapter 35, part 2 of this title who is a member of the fire department of such political subdivision, and is trained in firefighting and actively engaged in such work or subject to call for such services, providing such person's primary livelihood is derived from such work. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• General employee: means any person who is a state official, including legislative officials elected by the general assembly, or who is employed in the service of, and whose compensation is payable in whole or in part by, the state, including employees under supervision of the state whose compensation is paid, in whole or in part, from federal or other funds, or any person in the employ of a political subdivision participating under chapter 35, part 2 of this title, or of the Tennessee County Services Association, but does not include any teacher, state police officer, wildlife officer, firefighter, police officer, state judge, county judge, attorney general, governor, or county official or public service commissioner, or any person performing services on a contractual or percentage basis. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• 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.
• Health care prescriber: means a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathic medicine who is licensed pursuant to title 63, chapter 6 or 9. See Tennessee Code 68-140-501
• Heirs: means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• 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
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Interfacility telecommunications: means the exchange of ideas, instruction, or intelligence, pertaining to emergency medical services, between two (2) or more emergency medical entities. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Internal Revenue Code: means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, codified in United States Code, title 26, as amended. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Invalid vehicle: means any privately or publicly owned vehicle that is maintained, operated and intended to be used to transport persons who are convalescent, or otherwise nonambulatory, and do not require medical treatment while in transit. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License: means an authorization to a person to provide ambulance services. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Marital deduction: The deduction(s) that can be taken in the determination of gift and estate tax liabilities because of the existence of a marriage or marital relationship.
• Medical advisors: means the physicians, companies, or organizations provided for in part 4 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Medical direction: means the supervision by a physician licensed to practice in the state of Tennessee of all medical aspects of patient care within EMS. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Medical professional: means a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathic medicine who is licensed to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine in this state or in any other state or territory of the United States. See Tennessee Code 68-140-501
• Member: means a member of the Tennessee emergency medical service board. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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
• Member annuity: means annual payments for life derived from the accumulated contributions of the member. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Membership service: means service rendered while a member of the retirement system. 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
• Mobile integrated health care: means the provision of health care using patient-centered, mobile resources in the out-of-hospital environment under local medical control as part of a community-based team of health and social services providers to include, but not be limited to, home health organizations and community paramedics. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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.
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: includes any person entitled to take, or who would be entitled to take if the child, adopted or natural born, died without a will, as a parent under this title by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question and excludes any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• 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: means an individual who, as a result of physical or mental condition, needs medical attention. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Per stirpes: The legal means by which the children of a decedent, upon the death of an ancestor at a level above that of the decedent, receive by right of representation the share of the ancestor
• Permit: means an authorization issued for an ambulance vehicle as meeting the standards adopted pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Person: means an individual. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• Person: means any individual, association, organization or any other business entity, either profit or nonprofit, any state or local governmental entity, and federal agencies to the extent permitted by federal law. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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: includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Police officer: means a person in the employ of a political subdivision participating under chapter 35, part 2 of this title who is a member of the police department of such political subdivision and is trained in police work and actively engaged in such work. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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}
• Practice: means the exercise of principles and skills for effective emergency medical care under medical direction recognized as acts and responsibilities within the discipline of emergency medical services. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Prior class member: means a member who, on the day preceding the date of establishment, shall have been a member of a superseded system and who elects to remain covered by the benefit and contribution provisions of the superseded system, or who fails to elect to become covered by the benefit and contribution provisions of the retirement system applicable to new employees, as the case may be, in accordance with chapter 35, part 1 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Property: includes both real and personal property or any interest therein and means anything that may be the subject of ownership. See Tennessee Code 31-1-101
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• Resource inventory: means the tabulation of all equipment capable of performing telecommunications actions within, from, or to an emergency medical entity. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Retirement: means withdrawal from membership with a retirement allowance granted under chapters 34-37 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Retirement allowance: means the sum of the member annuity and the state annuity. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Retirement system: means the Tennessee consolidated retirement system as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Reviewing authority for applications: means that individual, or designated representative, capable of determining the validity of a request to any higher agency for a required permit or license. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Run records: means ambulance run reports relative to a response by an ambulance service or invalid vehicle operator during which a patient is evaluated, treated or transported. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Service: means the provision of organized response by ambulances or emergency response vehicles, or the provision of emergency care on an organized basis. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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.
• Service retirement date: means the date on which a member first becomes eligible for a service retirement allowance, or would first become eligible for a service retirement allowance if the member were to remain in service until such date, as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• 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
• Social security integration level: means , with respect to the calendar year in which a member retires, the average annual amount of compensation with respect to which old age and survivors benefits would be provided under Title II of the Federal Social Security Act (42 U. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• 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: includes an Indian tribe or band, or Alaskan native village, recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• State annuity: means annual payments for life derived from contributions by an employer. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• State judge: means any person in office as a judge of a court of record in this state, whose salary for the judge's judicial position has been paid during the period of the judge's service wholly from the treasury of the state, including the administrative director of the courts. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Substantial gainful activity: means the performance of significant duties over a reasonable period of time of work for remuneration or profit or in work of a type generally performed for remuneration or profit. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Superseded system: means , where applicable, the Tennessee state retirement system, the Tennessee teachers' retirement system, the Tennessee judges' retirement system, the retirement system for county paid judges of Tennessee, the attorneys general retirement system of Tennessee, the public service commissioners' retirement system, and the Tennessee retirement system for county officials, any one (1) of them, or any combination thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Telecommunications: means those voice, data, and signaling transmissions and receptions between emergency medical service entities, including, but not limited to, ambulances, rescue vehicles, hospitals or other related emergency receiving facilities, emergency communications centers, physicians and emergency medical personnel, paging facilities, law enforcement agencies, fire control agencies, poison control centers, suicide prevention agencies, and disaster control centers. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Telecommunications resource coordination center: means that urban center of population within an emergency medical service area providing the facilities and manpower to maintain telecommunications contact, on a continuous basis, with other emergency medical entities within the emergency medical service area. See Tennessee Code 68-140-102
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• Trust: means :
  (A) An express trust, charitable or noncharitable, with additions thereto, whenever and however created. See Tennessee Code 31-7-102
• 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
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Volunteer personnel: means persons who provide emergency care without expectation of remuneration who do not receive payment for services rendered, and who do not depend on the provision of emergency care for their livelihood or a substantial portion of their livelihood. See Tennessee Code 68-140-302
• Wildlife officer: means any commissioned employee of the wildlife resources agency engaged in law enforcement activities on a day-to-day basis. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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