An Ontario long-term care home with 128 residents reduced its incontinence supply spend by roughly 18% across two quarters without moving residents onto lower-capacity products. The home did it by matching three product types to three real care situations instead of buying one brief for every case. The change was visible at the bedside: fewer overnight changes, fewer wet bed changes, and a shorter morning routine for the care team.
How did the home measure cost per change?
The director of care started with a simple denominator: cost per change, not cost per case. A case price hides the real spend because a low-capacity product used for an overnight resident is changed more often, and each change carries its own labour cost. Once the home counted changes per resident day, the smallest case price was no longer the most economical option on the floor.
The team built a two-week baseline by shadowing the night shift and logging product type, change time, and whether bedding needed replacing. That baseline cost nothing to produce and became the only number the procurement discussion needed.
Which product mix reduced spend without cutting absorbency?
The home split residents into three groups. Mobile residents on a toileting programme kept a moderate-capacity daytime brief. Residents with heavy overnight output moved to a higher-capacity overnight brief with a wider SAP core. Residents on bed rest used a moderate brief paired with a large underpad, so a single wet episode did not force a full bedding change.
| Care situation | Product pairing | Capacity used | Changes per resident day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile, daytime | Daytime brief | Moderate | 3 to 4 |
| Heavy overnight output | Overnight brief | High | 4 to 5 |
| Bed rest | Brief plus underpad | Moderate | 3 to 4 |
| Palliative, high fluid | Overnight brief plus underpad | High | 4 to 6 |
How do underpads change the real cost of a change?
An underpad is often treated as an extra line item, but in the bed-rest group it removed full sheet changes rather than adding a step. Each avoided sheet change saves laundry handling, staff time, and resident disturbance. The home standardised on a 60 x 90 cm five-layer underpad with SAP and vacuum compression, which folds flat for storage and stays in place during a reposition.
Used that way, the underpad reduced total cost per change even though it added a second product to the bed. The trap is using an underpad everywhere. In the mobile group it added cost without removing any changes, so the home restricted it to the residents who actually needed it.
What did the six-month review show?
After two quarters, the home's measured changes per resident day fell in the overnight and bed-rest groups, and total product spend dropped without any increase in skin breakdown. The remaining savings came from ordering discipline rather than from cutting absorbency: the home moved to standing orders on the two most-used items and stopped splitting small orders across three suppliers.
The two items that carried the programme were a high-capacity overnight brief and a large SAP underpad. The home standardised on the 5,000 ml overnight adult brief, 60-pack for the heavy-output group, and on the 60 x 90 cm five-layer SAP underpad, 50-pack for bed rest. Both are stocked for Canadian facilities through CliniEco wholesale. Reselling? become a distributor.
To plan volumes before committing to a standing order, the team used the incontinence supply planner to model monthly usage by resident group. Facilities that also manage instrument reprocessing can print blank monitoring sheets from the printable sterilization log library, while clinical leads who need to revisit a monitoring or infection-control policy can reach a sterilization compliance specialist.
For a single-site home, the quick reality check is the BI 5-pack trial (CA $12.99, shipping included), which CliniEco Medical lists alongside its incontinence range as a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
Related Reading
- Incontinence supply planner
- Adult brief cost per change: tab vs pull-on vs overnight
- Bulk underpad procurement for Canadian nursing homes and home care agencies
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the right metric for incontinence supply cost in long-term care?
Cost per change is the usable metric, because it captures product price, capacity, and the labour attached to each change. Cost per case hides the frequency difference between a daytime brief and an overnight brief.
Do higher-capacity briefs always increase monthly spend?
No. When overnight output is heavy, a higher-capacity brief can lower total spend by reducing the number of changes and the bedding changes that follow a leak. The saving appears in labour and laundry, not only on the invoice.
When should an underpad be added to the bed?
Add an underpad for residents on bed rest or with high overnight output, where it replaces a full sheet change after a leak. For mobile residents it usually adds cost without removing any change, so it is better left out.
How should a home start a cost-per-change review?
Shadow one night shift for two weeks and log product type, change time, and bedding replacement. That baseline takes little effort and gives procurement a defensible number to work from.
Last updated: October 2026. CliniEco Medical is a licensed medical device establishment (MDEL #35334).
0 commentaire