A par level is the quantity a clinic wants on the shelf at the start of a cycle, and it is the simplest tool for stopping both shortages and overstock. It works because it is built from measured consumption rather than from memory, and because it is reviewed on a schedule. The formula is short: weekly use, multiplied by the lead time, plus a safety margin.
A daily-use line makes the calculation concrete. For an underpad used continuously in a care home, a month of issue records is enough to set a level that holds until the next order arrives without a mid-cycle emergency order.
How do you measure weekly consumption?
Start with four weeks of issue records for the item, add the quantity used and divide by four. Four weeks is the shortest window that smooths a quiet week without hiding a change in workload, and it is long enough to catch the effect of a new room or a new appointment mix. Where a clinic has no written issue record, a four-week count of what was opened from the storeroom produces the same figure, though it should be repeated once a year to confirm the pattern has not moved.
How much safety stock sits above the par level?
The safety margin covers the lead time, because the par level is set to arrive at the next order date rather than to last indefinitely. If a line takes ten days to arrive, the clinic holds enough to cover those ten days of use on top of the cycle quantity, otherwise a late shipment becomes a shortage. Lines that arrive on a fixed shipment window carry a larger margin than a line that ships the same day from local stock, and the margin is set per item rather than for the storeroom as a whole.
| Item type | Weekly use | Lead time | Par level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily-use consumable | Measured over four weeks | Short, stocked locally | Cycle need plus a small margin |
| Imported bulk line | Measured over four weeks | Shipment window | Cycle need plus full lead-time cover |
| Low-use special item | Counted per quarter | Variable | Held as a fixed minimum, not at par |
| Short-shelf-life item | Measured weekly | Short | Set to expiry, not to lead time |
| Shared between sites | Group total | Longest in the group | Set on the group figure |
Which items should not be held at par?
An item used once a month does not need a par level, because the space it occupies and the expiry risk it carries are disproportionate to the volume it protects. Those lines are better handled as an order-on-demand item with a small fixed minimum, reviewed at the same time as the par sheet. The same applies to a product with a short shelf life, where the level should be set to the expiry date rather than to the lead time, and to any line whose pack count makes a single pack larger than the monthly use.
How often should the par sheet be reviewed?
Once a quarter is enough for a stable clinic, with an earlier review after a change in rooms, staff or appointment mix, because those are the changes that move consumption. The review compares the recorded weekly use against the actual use over the quarter and adjusts the level where they have drifted apart. A par level that is never reviewed quietly becomes either a shortage or a shelf of slow stock, and both cost more than the review.
Volume benchmarking for care homes sits in underpad and brief spend per resident, and the glove side is covered by a monthly glove usage audit for a five-operator clinic. A daily-use line on the par sheet is the 60 by 90 cm five-layer underpad, and a care-home line is the adult incontinence brief.
Related reading
Volume benchmarking for care homes sits in underpad and brief spend per resident, and the glove side is covered by a monthly glove usage audit for a five-operator clinic.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate weekly consumption for an item?
Add the quantity issued over the last four weeks and divide by four. Four weeks is long enough to smooth a quiet week and short enough to reflect the current workload, and it produces a number the par level can be built from.
How much safety stock should sit above the par level?
Enough to cover the lead time for that item. If a line takes ten days to arrive, the safety stock should cover ten days of use, because the par level only covers the days between orders.
Which items should not be held at par?
Items that are used rarely, that expire quickly or that occupy space out of proportion to their value. Holding them at par ties up shelf space and creates expiry write-offs for a product that is not part of the daily routine.
What should a par sheet record?
The item, the pack count, the weekly use, the lead time, the par level and the reorder point. Recording the pack count matters because the par level is set in units while the order is placed in packs.
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.
Download the printable stock and order log, run the log generator to track par levels, request a biological indicator sample, or ask a sterilization compliance specialist to review your monitoring routine.
CliniEco Medical is a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
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