Trash Chute Door9182425
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 error about it, the trash chute doors are required to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.5.4.3 of the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code requires trash chutes to discharge into trash collection rooms and the trash collection rooms cannot be utilized 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 image is commonly brought on by the failure to empty the cart in time, prior to 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 learn that employees reductions in the Environmental Solutions (housekeeping) division stop sufficient staffing to remove the trash bags. While this may be a legitimate reason, someone at this hospital forgot the significance of removing the trash on a regular basis. They need to make this a priority.
From a life security point of view, it would be 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 decide 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 risks were considered if the surveyor has a issue with bags o’ trash scattered on the floor.
