Trash Chute Door4803146
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 mistake about it, the trash chute doors are needed 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 utilized for any other objective. 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 image is commonly caused by the failure to empty the cart in time, prior to it fills up to the point exactly 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 Solutions (housekeeping) division prevent adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. While this may be a legitimate reason, someone at this hospital forgot the importance of removing the trash on a normal basis. They need to make this a priority.
From a life security point of view, it would be much better to remove 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 prior to it would obstruct the chute door from closing. I’m not certain what the hospital’s Infection Control expert 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 suggest you conduct a risk assessment to analyze the dangers to patient security. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the risks had been regarded as if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
