Trash Chute Door6695127
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 error 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 can't be used for any other objective. So, that means you cannot 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 where the bags of trash stop the chute doors from closing. In today’s economy, it is not all that uncommon to discover that employees reductions in the Environmental Services (housekeeping) department prevent sufficient 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 need to make this a priority.
From a life security 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 more bags of trash to pile up prior to it would obstruct the chute door from closing. I’m not sure what the hospital’s Infection Control professional would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES department cannot empty the cart frequently enough.
If you determine to permit 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 dangers to patient safety. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the dangers had been regarded as if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
