Trash Chute Door8630946
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 needed to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.five.4.three of the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code requires trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms can't be used for any other purpose. So, that indicates you cannot 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 exactly 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 Solutions (housekeeping) department prevent adequate staffing to eliminate the trash bags. Whilst this may be a reputable reason, somebody at this hospital forgot the importance 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 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 Manage professional would say about that, but I would suggest it as an option if the ES division can't empty the cart frequently sufficient.
If you determine to permit the bags of trash to accumulate on the floor in the trash chute discharge room, 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 were regarded as if the surveyor has a issue with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
