Personal Protective Equipment Burn Rate Calculator

For Health Care Providers

What to know

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator can help healthcare and non-healthcare systems plan, optimize, and track their PPE inventory. Facilities can use this tool to calculate their average PPE consumption rate or “burn rate.” The tool can estimate how many days a PPE supply will last given current inventory levels and PPE burn rate.

Inventory closet and shelves filled with personal protective equipment and healthcare supplies

Overview

To use the calculator, enter the number of full boxes of each type of PPE in stock (gowns, gloves, surgical masks, respirators, and face shields, for example) and the total number of patients at your facility, if applicable. If you do not need to calculate the amount of PPE used at your facility per patient, leave “patients” row blank. The tool will calculate the average consumption rate, also referred to as a “burn rate,” for each type of PPE entered in the spreadsheet. This information can then be used to estimate how long the remaining supply of PPE will last, based on the average consumption rate. Using the calculator can help your facility make order projections for future needs.

System requirements

  • Windows* operating system (MS Windows 2000 or newer)
  • Microsoft Excel (MS Office 2000 or newer)
  • 486 Pentium processor and at least 128MB RAM
  • 2 MB of hard drive storage space

Instructions for downloading

Before loading and starting the PPE Burn Rate Calculator, you may need to change Excel's security level. To do so:

  1. Open a blank Excel spreadsheet.
  2. Click Tools and then click Macro, choose Security.
  3. Set Security Level to Medium.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Double-click and open PPE Burn Rate Calculator file.
  6. When asked to Disable Macros or Enable Macros, click Enable Macros.

Tip

Download and save the PPE Burn Rate Calculator spreadsheet to your computer before opening. Taking this step will open the spreadsheet in Excel rather than your web browser.
Content Source
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
About This Page
Published: November 20, 2024
Updated: October 28, 2026

This page was last updated on this date. Updates may include minor edits, image changes, or other modifications to page content.

Reviewed: September 28, 2026

The information on this page was last reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy.