Trash Chute Door4953411
Wow… What a scary site 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 demands trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms cannot be used for any other purpose. So, that means 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 generally 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 staff reductions in the Environmental Services (housekeeping) department stop adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. Whilst this may be a legitimate purpose, someone at this hospital forgot the significance 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 better to remove 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 certain what the hospital’s Infection Control expert would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES division cannot 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 danger assessment to analyze the dangers to patient security. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the dangers were regarded as if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
