An Ontario long-term care home ran an internal audit of its infection-control supplies after a resident floor reported running short of gowns mid-week. The audit mattered because supply gaps in a care home turn into isolation breaks: staff reuse a gown they should replace, or skip a surface wipe when the bucket is empty. This review covers the background, what the audit found, what the home changed and the records it kept.
What was the home's starting point?
The home ran three resident floors plus a memory-care unit from a single central storeroom. Isolation gowns, gloves and surface disinfectant were pulled by whichever staff member needed them, with no sign-out. Reordering happened when someone happened to notice a shelf looked low. The home had good hand-hygiene stations but no clear picture of how fast isolation supplies moved on any given floor.
What did the audit find?
- Isolation gowns and gloves were stored in one place, so a unit that ran hot had to walk to the storeroom rather than reach stock on the floor.
- There was no par level for gowns, so the storeroom could not tell a normal week from an outbreak week.
- Surface disinfectant and wipes were kept in the same cupboard as clean linens, mixing clean and soiled workflows.
- Open boxes of gloves sat on counters where they picked up dust and were handled by many people.
What did the home change?
The team split supply zones. Each floor received a locked sub-storeroom for gowns, gloves and wipes, sized to a set par level, with the central storeroom as the resupply point. Cleaning supplies moved out of the linen cupboard into a separate, labelled cabinet. Gloves went into dispensers rather than open boxes. The home set a simple reorder rule: when a floor's sub-storeroom dropped to its par level, the floor was resupplied on the next scheduled round, before anyone had to ask.
What records did the home keep?
| 记录类型 | 用途 |
|---|---|
| Par-level sheet per floor | Shows the target stock level for gowns, gloves and wipes |
| Resupply log | Records when a floor was topped up and by whom |
| Isolation supply usage note | Flags floors running above their usual pull |
| Product instruction on file | Keeps the manufacturer's contact time and use instructions on hand |
What are three things another home can reuse?
First, set a par level per unit and treat a drop to that level as the trigger to resupply, not a shortage. Second, keep clean and soiled supplies in separate cabinets, because mixing them is the easiest infection-control failure to fix and the easiest to miss. Third, put gloves in dispensers so they are not handled from an open box by everyone on the floor. None of these steps cost much to set up; they change where stock lives and who notices when it moves.
Why did the audit change outcomes rather than just paperwork?
The home did not buy dramatically more stock. It changed the distance between a staff member who needed a gown and a gown that was available, and it gave the storeroom a signal it could act on before a floor ran dry. That is the pattern a supply audit usually surfaces: the shortage is not a purchasing problem, it is a placement and timing problem. Once par levels and separated cabinets were in place, the mid-week shortage reports stopped, and the home had usage notes it could read when a floor's pull rose.
How did the audit handle outbreak readiness?
The home tested its par levels against a simulated outbreak week, not just an average one. It estimated how many gowns and gloves one isolated resident would consume across a shift, then multiplied that for a full floor, and set the sub-storeroom size to hold the buffer. The point was to make outbreak readiness a storage decision the home could plan for, rather than a scramble once a floor was already short. Staff rehearsed the resupply step once so the routine was familiar before it was needed.
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Related reading
An Ontario LTC home's outbreak preparedness review · Incontinence waste and an Ontario care home inspection · long-term care supplies
Floor-level par levels only work if the gown itself is dependable. SMS 40 gsm isolation gowns with Level 2 protection (50-pack) give a care home a consistent gown to stock against each floor's par level. The long-term care hub covers the wider supply set for resident floors.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set a par level for isolation gowns?
Start from the highest one-week pull on your busiest floor, then add a buffer for an outbreak week, and resupply whenever a floor drops to that level.
Do clean and soiled supplies need separate storage?
Yes. Keeping clean linens and clean supplies away from cleaning chemicals and soiled items is a basic step an inspection will check.
Should gloves be kept in open boxes?
Use dispensers where possible. Open boxes on counters are handled by many people and collect dust.
CliniEco Medical is a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
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