Trash Chute Door6424796
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 19.5.four.three 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 objective. So, that means you can't store products that are not related to the trash chute in the room, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the image 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 prevent adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. Whilst this may be a legitimate reason, someone at this hospital forgot the importance of removing the trash on a normal basis. They require to make this a priority.
From a life security 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 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 allow the bags of trash to accumulate on the floor in the trash chute discharge space, I suggest you conduct a risk assessment to analyze the risks to patient security. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the dangers had been regarded as if the surveyor has a issue with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
