Trash Chute Door3868688
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.five.4.3 of the 2000 edition of the Life Security Code requires trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms cannot be used for any other purpose. So, that indicates you cannot shop items that are not associated to the trash chute in the room, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the picture is commonly caused 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 discover that employees reductions in the Environmental Solutions (housekeeping) department prevent adequate staffing to remove the trash bags. While 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 more bags of trash to pile up before it would obstruct the chute door from closing. I’m not sure what the hospital’s Infection Control professional would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES division cannot empty the cart frequently enough.
If you decide to permit 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 risks to patient safety. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the risks had been considered if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
