Section 1200-14-05-.02 - DEFINITIONS(1) "Aerosol" means small particles of matter that float on air currents.(2) "Airborne Transmission" means person-to-person transmission of an infectious agent by an aerosol.(3) "Bloodborne Transmission" means person-to-person transmission of an infectious agent through contact with an infected person's blood.(4) "County medical examiner" means any licensed physician appointed or employed by the county governing body to act in that capacity.(5) "Designated Exposure Control Officer" means an individual designated by an ERE employer to manage exposure determinations.(6) "Emergency" means an injury or illness perceived to need immediate medical care in order to prevent loss of life, limb, significant body function or aggravation of illness or injury.(7) "Emergency Response Employees" (ERE's) means firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, first response workers, and volunteers making an authorized emergency response during the course of normal, authorized job duties.(8) "Employer of Emergency Response Employee" means an entity which employs individuals or utilizes volunteers who in the course of professional duties and exercising principles and skills for emergency medical care or emergency public safety activities respond to emergencies.(9) "Exposed" means with respect to HIV disease or any other infectious disease, to be in circumstances in which there is a direct threat of significant risk of becoming infected with the etiologic agent for the disease involved.(10) "Exposure" incorporates the definition of "exposure" as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Agency in its Bloodborne Pathogens Standard ( 29 CFR 1910.1030) : "specific eye, mouth, or other mucous membrane, non-intact skin, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that results from the performance of an employee's duties.(11) "Health care facility" means any entity, agency, institution, facility, or place, whether publicly or privately owned or operated, which provides health services or which maintains medical records, including, but not limited, to the Department of Health or the local health departments.(12) "Health care provider" means an individual who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by virtue of education and training to provide health care to someone who suffers illness or injury.(13) "Local health officer" means a physician employed by the State or a metropolitan Department of Health at the regional health department level.(14) "Patient" means a person experiencing an emergency who has been aided by an Emergency Response Employee and has been transported to a medical facility.(15) "Potentially life-threatening infectious disease" means an infectious disease that can cause death in a healthy, susceptible host.(16) "Responding agency" means the same as "An employer of Emergency Response Employees."(17) "Routinely transmitted by aerosol" means a disease that is usually transmitted through the air.(18) "Significant Risk" means a finding of facts relating to a human exposure to an etiologic agent for a particular disease, based on reasonable medical judgments given the state of medical knowledge, about: (a) the nature of the risk (how the disease is transmitted);(b) the duration of the risk (how long an infectious person may be infectious);(c) the severity of the risk (what is the potential harm to others); and(d) the probabilities the disease will be transmitted and will cause varying degrees of harm.(19) "Victim" means any individual suffering an illness or injury, regardless of whether the injury was accidental or intentional.(20) "Volunteer personnel or volunteer" means a person, operating under the direction of an Emergency Response Employer, who provides emergency medical care or emergency public safety services without expectation of remuneration, who does not receive payment for services rendered, and who does not depend on the provisions of emergency care for their livelihood or a substantial portion of their livelihood.Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1200-14-05-.02
Original rule filed August 4, 1998; effective October 18, 1998.Authority: T.C.A. §§ 4-3-1803(1),(10), 4-5-209, 68-10-117, 68-140-202(5), and 68-140-502.