Trash Chute Door8901276
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 needed to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.five.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 can't be used for any other purpose. So, that indicates you can't store items that are not associated to the trash chute in the room, such as floor scrubber machines.
The scene in the picture is generally 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 learn that staff reductions in the Environmental Services (housekeeping) department stop sufficient staffing to eliminate the trash bags. While this may be a legitimate reason, somebody at this hospital forgot the importance 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 much more bags of trash to pile up before 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 recommend it as an option if the ES department cannot empty the cart frequently 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 dangers to patient safety. This way, you can demonstrate to a surveyor that the risks were considered if the surveyor has a problem with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
