A walk-in clinic in Moncton, New Brunswick, was buying gloves in three sizes and still hearing staff say the gloves did not fit. The practice manager measured what was actually being pulled from each exam room and found that the middle size was disappearing twice as fast as the patient mix justified. This case review sets out the count, the change to sizing at the door, and the quarter that followed.
The clinic settled on a nitrile examination gloves, 3.5 mil, 1,000 per case for exam rooms and kept the heavier 6 mil box for procedures where grip matters.
What did the manager measure?
Two weeks of box counts, written on the side of each box in pencil: date opened, date empty, and the room it came from. Nothing else changed during the count. The pattern that emerged was that the middle size was being pulled from rooms where the staff on shift wore the smaller size, which pointed to a substitution habit rather than a stock problem.
The second measurement was less obvious. The manager asked three staff members to put on a glove from each open box and say whether it felt right. Two of the three picked a size larger than the one they had been using, because the boxes in the room were the only sizes available at the point of use.
What changed at the door?
The clinic moved the glove boxes out of the exam rooms and into a single sizing station at the corridor entrance, with all three sizes side by side and a laminated card showing how to check finger length and palm fit. Rooms kept one box of the size most used in that room, refilled from the station, so nobody had to leave a patient to fetch a glove.
The card was the part that lasted. It showed two checks — fingertips reaching the end of the glove without tension, and no bunching across the palm — and it removed the argument about whether a glove "felt tight" because it was the wrong size or because it was the wrong material.
What were the results after one quarter?
| Measure | Before | After one quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Gloves used per patient visit | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| Boxes pulled from the wrong room per week | 11 | 2 |
| Staff reporting a poor fit at shift end | 5 of 12 | 1 of 12 |
| Sizes stocked per exam room | 3 | 1 plus corridor station |
The gloves-per-visit figure is the number the manager reports. A drop from 4.6 to 3.8 is roughly one glove saved per visit, which comes from fewer mid-visit changes when a glove tears or is discarded because it does not fit. The fit complaints fell for the same reason: staff were no longer choosing between the two sizes that happened to be in the room.
What would the clinic do differently?
Two things. The manager would have counted patient mix as well as box draw, because the middle size turned out to suit a smaller share of patients than the old ordering pattern assumed. And the clinic would have introduced the corridor station before the count rather than after, since the station itself changed behaviour within a week.
How could another clinic copy this?
Write the open and empty dates on each box for two weeks, note which room each box came from, and ask a handful of staff to try one glove from each open box. Then put all sizes at one point of use and keep rooms stocked with a single size. None of this requires a new supplier or a new product.
Print the glove and PPE draw sheet to run the same two-week count, and use the log generator to build the room stocking list.
Ordering for a clinic, lab or care home? Wholesale and multi-site ordering covers case pricing and account setup, and the B2B wholesale collection lists the lines stocked for institutional buyers. Reselling? become a distributor.
Related reading
- Medical nitrile gloves: sizes, specs and options in Canada
- Do exam gloves have to meet AQL pinhole limits?
Frequently Asked Questions
How many gloves does a walk-in clinic use per patient visit?
Between three and five pairs per visit is typical for a clinic that changes gloves between tasks. A rate above five usually points to fit problems rather than to infection control practice.
Should exam rooms stock all glove sizes?
Rooms can hold one size, with all sizes at a single corridor station. Stocking every size in every room is what produces substitutions and torn gloves.
Does glove thickness change fit?
It changes how the glove feels rather than the measured size. A heavier glove feels tighter across the palm, which is why a clinic using both 4 mil and 6 mil should let staff try both before choosing a size.
How often should glove sizing be reviewed?
Whenever staffing changes materially, and at least once a year. A two-week box count is enough to see whether the sizes being pulled match the patient mix.
CliniEco Medical is a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
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