Care Home Operations
A practical method for sizing PPE stock in a care home — working from care episodes rather than guesswork, with a worked example and a reorder framework.
OMS Clinical Team
Product Specialists
Keep reading
Most care homes size PPE stock from memory — what was ordered last month, adjusted by whether the store looked empty. That works until occupancy changes or an outbreak starts. A simple calculation from care episodes gives a defensible number and makes reordering predictable.
PPE is consumed per episode of care, not per shift. A resident needing four personal care interventions a day generates four glove-and-apron changes at minimum — more if the episode involves multiple tasks.
| Input | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Occupied beds | Current occupancy, not registered capacity |
| Care episodes per resident per day | Care plans — typically 4 to 8 |
| Items per episode | Gloves (1 pair), apron (1), mask if indicated |
| Buffer | A contingency multiplier for outbreaks |
A 40-bed home at 90% occupancy is 36 residents. At 6 care episodes a day that is 216 episodes daily, or roughly 1,512 a week. One pair of gloves and one apron per episode gives about 3,024 gloves and 1,512 aprons a week before any buffer.
Consumption during an outbreak does not rise gently — it steps up. A home that normally uses 3,000 gloves a week can double that within days when enhanced precautions begin. Holding a buffer is cheaper than emergency sourcing at short notice.
Plan the buffer for the week you least want to be placing an urgent order.
Optimised Medical Supplies supplies gloves, aprons and masks to care home groups across the UK, with next-day delivery on stocked lines when ordered before 4pm. Trade accounts include Net-30 terms and a named account manager.
