Trash Chute Door6630332
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 required to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.5.four.three of the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code demands trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms cannot be utilized for any other purpose. So, that indicates you can't 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 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 employees reductions in the Environmental Solutions (housekeeping) department stop sufficient staffing to remove the trash bags. While this may be a legitimate purpose, someone at this hospital forgot the significance of removing the trash on a regular basis. They require to make this a priority.
From a life safety point of view, it would be much better to remove the cart and allow the bags to fall onto the floor. This way it would take a lot much 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 Manage expert would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES department can't empty the cart frequently sufficient.
If you determine 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 risks to patient safety. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the dangers were regarded as if the surveyor has a issue with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
