How Often Do Clinics Restock Disposable Underpads?
What Sets the Restock Interval?
Pads used per day, divided into the case size. A 500-pad case of CliniEco Medical Adult Underpads 60×90cm — 500 ct (10-Box Case) is ten boxes of fifty, and that number is the only figure needed to turn a usage pattern into an order date.
Most facilities guess at that usage figure, and most guess low, because pads are pulled from a store room by several people across three shifts and no one counts.
How Long Does a Case Last?
| Setting | Pads per day | 500-pad case lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Clinic, treatment tables only | 10 | About 7 weeks |
| Clinic with a day procedure room | 20 | About 3.5 weeks |
| 20-bed care home | 50 | About 10 days |
| 40-bed care home | 100 | About 5 days |
| 80-bed home with high acuity | 180 | About 3 days |
Care homes consume an order of magnitude more than clinics, and the same case size serves both badly if purchasing is centralised without that difference written down.
Why Do Care Homes Run Short?
Three reasons, all familiar. Usage rises with acuity without anyone updating the par level. Case size changes with a supplier switch and the reorder calculation does not. Storage runs out before the reorder point is reached, so cartons pile in a corridor and the last box is opened early.
The counter-measure is a par level expressed in days of cover rather than cases: two weeks on the shelf for a care home, four weeks for a clinic.
How Does Storage Change the Answer?
Volume, not weight, drives the storage problem. Vacuum compression is what makes a case fit on a shelf instead of occupying half a store room, which in turn makes a two-week par level realistic. Pads stored flat, off the floor, in a dry room, rotate cleanly; pads stored in a humid utility room next to a sluice take up moisture and smell before they are used.
Which Format Belongs in Which Room?
A care home usually runs two: the 60×90 cm pad for beds and a 30×36 in pad for chairs, which is 76 × 91 cm and therefore a larger item than the metric label suggests. Clinics are better served by a smaller format for treatment tables, where a bed-sized pad becomes folds rather than coverage. Facilities standardising across sites should write the format into the care plan documentation, because Ontario's long-term care general regulation, O. Reg. 246/22, ties supplies to the resident's plan of care rather than to a ward-level habit.
A clinic that also handles urology patients may prefer a kit rather than loose pads: CliniEco Urology Care Kit — Adult Incontinence Pads & Essentials covers the procedure tray without a second order line.
What Does the Reorder Point Look Like in Practice?
One line on the stock sheet: date received, case count, daily usage estimate, and the date the par level is reached. When that date appears, the order goes in, regardless of how full the shelf looks. Facilities that run this for a quarter usually find their usage estimate was 20 to 30 per cent low, which explains the emergency orders nobody could account for.
Care homes and clinics can find pads in both formats in our long-term care supplies section, including CliniEco Disposable Adult Underpads — Heavy Absorbency, 30×36 in for chairs and night use.
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.
References
- Ontario — O. Reg. 246/22, General Regulation under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 (checked 18 October 2026)
Printable companion: the compliance log sheets include a stock rotation line, so lot numbers and case dates are recorded when stock moves.
Related Reading
- Underpad Reorder Planning: How Many Pads Does a Facility Use Daily?
- Underpads in Long-Term Care: Layers, Sizes and Cost Per Resident Day
- Disposable Underpad Cost per Pad: A Budget Calculator for LTC
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a 500-pad case last a care home?
A 40-bed home using roughly 100 pads a day gets through a case every five days, which means one case per week with a spare on the shelf. A clinic using 15 pads a day gets about a month from the same case.
When should the reorder go in?
When two weeks of cover remains, not when the shelf looks low. Underpads are bulky, deliveries are not instant, and a case ordered at one-quarter full usually arrives after the room has borrowed from another unit.
Should a clinic buy the same pad as a care home?
No. A clinic uses pads on treatment and exam tables, so a smaller format and a lighter core are enough. A care home needs the 60×90 cm format for night use and the 30×36 in format for chairs.
Do underpads expire?
They carry a shelf life set by the maker, and the core takes up humidity in a damp store room, which is why cartons belong off the floor and out of utility rooms. Rotation matters more than the date.
Last updated: October 2026. CliniEco Medical is a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
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