Trash Chute Door6391777
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 required to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.five.four.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 objective. So, that means you can't store products that are not associated to the trash chute in the room, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the image is generally caused by the failure to empty the cart in time, before it fills up to the point exactly where the bags of trash stop the chute doors from closing. In today’s economy, it is not all that uncommon to learn that employees reductions in the Environmental Solutions (housekeeping) division stop adequate staffing to remove the trash bags. Whilst this may be a legitimate 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 better to remove 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 alternative if the ES department cannot empty the cart often sufficient.
If you determine 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 dangers were regarded as if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
