How much PPE should a clinic keep on hand? Setting par levels that survive a surge

The clinics that ran out of gloves in 2020 weren't careless. They were stocking to the previous month's usage, and usage tripled in a week. The lesson stuck: PPE inventory for a clinic should be set by a rule, not a feeling, and the rule should assume a bad month.

Start with weekly burn rate

For each PPE item, count what you actually use in a normal week. Exam gloves are the easiest to measure and the most important to get right. A single provider seeing 25 patients a day with a medical assistant will move roughly 400 to 600 gloves a week between them, depending on procedure mix. Multiply by providers, add front-desk and cleaning use, and you have a baseline.

Set the par level at six weeks

A par level is the quantity you always restock to. For PPE, six weeks of normal usage is a defensible floor for most clinics. It covers a supply delay, a seasonal spike in respiratory visits and a delivery that arrives short, without tying up a storage room. Practices that experienced the 2020 shortage often carry eight to twelve weeks of gloves and masks specifically; the cost of the extra stock is small next to the cost of cancelling a clinic day.

Set a reorder point at three weeks

The reorder point is the level that triggers an order. Three weeks gives a normal distributor time to ship and gives you time to find an alternative if they can't. When stock hits the reorder point, order back up to par. That's the whole system.

A worked example

A two-provider family practice uses about 1,000 nitrile exam gloves a week across all staff. Par at six weeks is 6,000 gloves, or 60 boxes of 100, which is six cases. Reorder point at three weeks is 3,000 gloves, or three cases. When the storage shelf drops to three cases, the practice orders three more. With auto-replenish, the distributor ships three cases every three weeks and the practice adjusts the schedule quarterly.

The items people forget

• Hand sanitizer and soap refills, which run out faster than gloves in flu season
• Face shields and eye protection, which don't get used until they're urgently needed
• Isolation gowns in more than one size
• N95 or KN95 respirators in the sizes your staff actually fit-tested for
• Sharps containers, which are technically PPE-adjacent but run out at the worst moments

Buying in cases

Once par levels are set, you're buying predictable quantities on a predictable schedule, which is exactly the situation where case pricing pays off. A clinic ordering six cases of gloves every six weeks should not be paying box-by-box marketplace prices. Ask your medical supply distributor for a standing-order rate and have them confirm the same-day shipping cutoff so your three-week reorder point holds.

If you'd like help setting par levels for your practice, send your current usage through the contact form and we'll draft a replenishment schedule with case pricing attached.