Rehab clinic supplies are consumed by the visit, and a busy physical therapy clinic burns through them faster than the front desk expects. Resistance bands go home with patients, compression garments are dispensed at discharge, hot packs wear out, and cold packs walk away. The clinics that never run short treat those lines like exam gloves: a par level, a monthly reorder, and one supplier that shows the lead time before the order is placed.
Resistance products: the color progression is the inventory plan
TheraBand resistance bands follow a fixed color progression, with roughly a 25 percent increase in pull force from yellow through black and a 40 percent jump into silver and gold. That progression is also the stocking plan. Clinics dispense the light colors, yellow and red, to post-operative and older patients in volume, and the heavier colors, green through black, to sports and return-to-work patients. Silver and gold move slowly and belong at a lower par.
A workable month for a four-therapist clinic:
| Product | Colors | Monthly par |
|---|---|---|
| Latex band, 6 yard dispenser boxes | Yellow, red, green, blue, black | 2 boxes each light color, 1 each heavy |
| Latex-free band, 6 yard | Yellow, red, green | 1 box each |
| Pre-cut loops and CLX bands | Red, green, blue | 2 packs each |
| Tubing with handles | Red, green | 6 to 8 sets |
Stock latex-free alongside latex so a latex-sensitive patient never leaves without a band. Performance Health makes both, and Keystone lists the TheraBand line with lead times in the orthopedic soft goods and casting category.
Compression garments: size runs, not single units
Compression is where clinics lose patients to online sellers, because the clinic did not have the size on the shelf. Medical compression garments from lines such as BSN Medical and Jobst are sold by compression class and size, and the size run is wide. Stocking a complete run of the two or three styles you dispense most, in the classes your therapists prescribe, keeps the sale and the outcome in the building. Order the run by the case, and reorder by size as you dispense rather than waiting for a style to be gone entirely. A simple size tally taped inside the cabinet door, marked at each dispense, is enough to trigger the reorder before the gap opens.
Hot and cold therapy: the items that wear out
Moist heat packs, hydrocollator covers, and reusable cold packs are durable until they are not. Packs split, covers fray, and a hydrocollator that runs short of packs slows every treatment room. Set a replacement cadence: inspect monthly, replace on a schedule, and keep spares. Disposable instant cold packs and single-use hot packs belong at a par for home programs and for patients who leave with a fresh injury.
Biofreeze and similar topical analgesics from the Performance Health line are dispensed by the tube and sold at the front desk. Treat them as retail inventory with their own reorder point.
Hot and cold therapy also drives a laundry and replacement budget most clinics forget. Terry covers for hot packs need replacing every few months in a busy clinic, and cold pack sleeves go missing with the packs. Count covers and sleeves on the same monthly walk as the packs themselves, and keep a case of each in the closet so a torn cover does not take a treatment table out of service for a week.
Consumables that nobody budgets for
The lines that actually trigger the emergency order are the ones that feel too small to track:
- Table paper and pillowcases
- Exam gloves for manual therapy and wound checks
- Surface disinfectant wipes for tables and equipment between patients
- Electrode pads for electrical stimulation, by unit and size
- Ultrasound gel by the gallon with refillable bottles
- Kinesiology tape and athletic tape by the case
- Theraputty in the resistance run
Put every one of them on the same reorder as the bands and packs. Gloves, wipes, and table paper come from the same distributor as the rehab lines when that distributor is Keystone, which means one purchase order and one delivery.
The monthly reorder
Count what is left on the last Friday of the month, compare it to par, and send the difference. Keystone quotes the list the same business day, ships in-stock items from Edina, Minnesota in one to three business days, and offers Net 30 for approved accounts. Clinics that would rather not count put the list on a standing order and adjust it once a quarter.
See orthopedic soft goods and rehab products and patient care and exam room supplies, or contact the sales department with your therapist count and we will build the par list.
Sources
- https://www.therabandclx.com/extras/force-chart
- https://www.prohealthcareproducts.com/blog/theraband-colors-sequence-resistance-levels/
- https://ptsmc.com/a-physical-therapists-comprehensive-guide-to-resistance-bands-for-injury-recovery/
- https://www.otdude.com/reference-guides/thera-band-resistance-level-chart-by-color/
