Chapter Definitions

1. Law
2. Tennessee Code
3. Health, Safety and Environmental Protection
4. Tennessee Medical Laboratory Act
5. Chapter Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Analytic testing” means that phase of medical laboratory testing, as defined by the board, that can impact the reliability of the results reported;
2. “Board” means the medical laboratory board, created by § 68-29-109;
3. “Collection station” means any place or entity that has as its primary purpose either the collection of specimens directly from patients or the bringing together of specimens after collection for the purpose of referral to a medical laboratory where testing is performed;
4. “Commissioner” means the commissioner of health;
5. “Council” means the public health council, as defined in § 68-1-501 [repealed];
6. “Department” means the state department of health, including the public health council [repealed];
7. “Designated Entity” means an entity that performs actions or functions on behalf of the provider, payer or patient for the purposes of creating an electronic health record;
8. “Independent laboratory” means a medical laboratory performing patient tests that is independent both of attending and consulting physicians' offices and independent of a hospital;
9. “Medical laboratory” means any institution, building, or place in which operations and procedures for the microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, immunohematological, or biophysical examination of specimens taken from the human body are performed to obtain information for diagnosis, prophylaxis, or treatment or where any examination, determination, or test is made on any sample used as a basis for health advice, or where any sample is collected for the purpose of transfusion or processing of blood or blood fractions, or for the training of medical laboratory personnel;
10. “Medical laboratory director” means a person who is responsible for the administration of the technical and scientific operation of a medical laboratory, including supervision of procedures for testing and the reporting of results;
11. “Medical laboratory evaluation program” means a program of evaluating the proficiency of medical laboratories by the department;
12. “Medical laboratory owner” means a person or agency in whom is vested the rights of control, possession, and dominion of a medical laboratory, and, for the purposes of this chapter, includes a county, municipality, or any other owner of an institution operating a medical laboratory;
13. “Medical laboratory personnel” includes the medical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or technician, but does not include medical laboratory assistants, trainees, or other persons employed by a medical laboratory to perform clerical or other administrative responsibilities involving no laboratory test;
14. “Medical laboratory supervisor” means a person who, under the general supervision of a medical laboratory director, supervises technical personnel, performs tests requiring special scientific skills, and, in the absence of the director, is held responsible for the proper performance of all medical laboratory procedures and the reporting of results;
15. “Medical laboratory technician” means any person other than the medical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or trainee who functions under the supervision of a medical laboratory director, supervisor, or technologist and performs only those medical laboratory procedures that require limited skill, responsibility, and a minimal exercise of independent judgment;
16. “Medical laboratory technologist” means a person who performs tests that require the exercise of independent judgment and responsibility with minimal supervision by the director or supervisor, in only those specialties or subspecialties in which the technologist is qualified by education, training, and experience;
17. “Medical laboratory trainee” is a person enrolled in a program accredited by an accrediting agency accepted by the board; or who, in a limited laboratory specialty or specialties for which there is no accredited program available, works and trains under the supervision of a director, supervisor or technologist qualified in the specialty or specialties. A trainee may perform procedures only under direct and responsible supervision of a duly licensed director, supervisor or technologist, but may not report test results;
18. “Person” means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, municipality, political subdivision, or any other entity whether organized for profit or not;
19. “Physician” means any doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy duly licensed to practice the doctor's profession in Tennessee;
20. “Point of care laboratory testing” means those tests performed by health care professionals, not licensed by this chapter, upon approval by the board; provided, that the testing is performed outside the duly licensed laboratory, and under the auspices of a laboratory required to be licensed by the division of health care facilities in the department of health, pursuant to this chapter;
21. “Special analyst” means any person performing a singular or limited type of medical laboratory test or group of tests, such as, but not limited to, blood gases or pH tests, on human specimens, but who is not trained to perform the broad range of tests required of licensed medical laboratory personnel; and
22. “Waived” means those laboratory tests, as defined by the board, that may be performed by individuals not licensed under this chapter, and that pose no reasonable risk of harm if performed incorrectly.

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