Trash Chute Door355389
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 needed 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 cannot be utilized for any other objective. So, that indicates you cannot shop items that are not associated to the trash chute in the space, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the picture 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 prevent 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) division stop adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. Whilst this may be a reputable reason, somebody at this hospital forgot the importance of removing the trash on a normal basis. They require to make this a priority.
From a life safety point of view, it would be much better to eliminate the cart and permit the bags to fall onto the floor. This way it would take a lot much more bags of trash to pile up before it would obstruct the chute door from closing. I’m not certain what the hospital’s Infection Control professional would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES department can't empty the cart often enough.
If you decide to allow the bags of trash to accumulate on the floor in the trash chute discharge room, I recommend you conduct a danger assessment to analyze the dangers to patient security. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the risks were regarded as if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
