PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS

CDC Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator Two N-95 facemasks

Use this Excel spreadsheet to calculate your PPE burn rate

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator excel icon[3 sheets] is a spreadsheet-based model that will help healthcare facilities plan and optimize the use of PPE for response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Non-healthcare facilities such as correctional facilities may also find this tool useful.

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. 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 facilities 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

* MS Windows and Office is a copyrighted product produced by Microsoft Corporation, based in Redmond, WA. Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Instructions for Downloading

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

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

Downloading the Files

We recommend downloading and saving the PPE Burn Rate Calculator spreadsheet to your computer before opening the spreadsheet. Taking this step will open the spreadsheet in Excel rather than your web browser.

Page last reviewed: April 7, 2020Content source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral Diseases