Trash Chute Door3368464
Wow… What a scary website to see. Trash bags caught in the trash chute in such a way that it prevents the chute doors from automatically closing. And make no error about it, the trash chute doors are required to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.5.four.3 of the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code requires trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms can't be used for any other objective. So, that means you can't store items that are not associated to the trash chute in the space, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the image is commonly brought on by the failure to empty the cart in time, before it fills up to the point where the bags of trash stop the chute doors from closing. In today’s economy, it is not all that uncommon to learn that staff reductions in the Environmental Services (housekeeping) department prevent adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. While this may be a legitimate reason, somebody at this hospital forgot the significance of removing the trash on a regular basis. They require to make this a priority.
From a life security point of view, it would be better to eliminate the cart and allow the bags to fall onto the floor. This way it would take a lot more bags of trash to pile up prior to it would obstruct the chute door from closing. I’m not sure what the hospital’s Infection Control expert would say about that, but I would recommend it as an alternative if the ES division cannot empty the cart frequently sufficient.
If you determine to permit the bags of trash to accumulate on the floor in the trash chute discharge space, I suggest you conduct a danger assessment to analyze the risks to patient safety. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the dangers had been considered if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
