Trash Chute Door993864
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 mistake about it, the trash chute doors are needed to close and latch, automatically.
Section 19.5.4.3 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 objective. So, that means you can't shop products 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 where the bags of trash stop the chute doors from closing. In today’s economy, it is not all that uncommon to discover that staff reductions in the Environmental Services (housekeeping) division stop sufficient staffing to remove the trash bags. While this may be a reputable reason, somebody at this hospital forgot the significance of removing the trash on a normal basis. They require to make this a priority.
From a life security point of view, it would be better to eliminate 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 certain what the hospital’s Infection Control professional would say about that, but I would suggest it as an alternative if the ES department can't empty the cart often enough.
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 danger 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.
