Cost Per Occupied Bed-Day: The Figure That Decides a Urine Gel Tender

Three bids arrive for a 90-bed continuing care contract. Bid A is 6.40 pounds per kilo and states a dose of 10 g. Bid B is 5.10 per kilo and states a dose of 16 g. Bid C is 7.80 per kilo and supplies 8 g sachets. On the headline price B looks 20 per cent cheaper. On cost per occupied bed-day, B is the most expensive of the three by a margin of 41 per cent, and the evaluation panel has eight minutes to notice.

This article shows how to convert a price per kilo into a cost per occupied bed-day, which inputs suppliers habitually manipulate, and how to write an evaluation sheet that makes the manipulation visible.

Build the denominator before reading the bids

Occupied bed-days, not beds and not residents. Take 90 beds at 91 per cent occupancy over 365 days: 29,894 occupied bed-days. State the average number of gelling events per occupied bed-day, taken from your own output charts, typically 0.9 to 1.2. And state the average volume per event, typically 380 to 450 ml in a continuing care setting.

Those three numbers belong in the tender documents, not in the evaluation room. A supplier who knows the denominator can price honestly, and one who does not will price to the headline.

The conversion, step by step

Cost per event equals grams per event multiplied by price per gram, plus the handling cost. Cost per bed-day equals cost per event multiplied by events per bed-day. For bid A: 10 g at 0.0064 is 0.064, handling 0.147, total 0.211 per event, and 0.190 per occupied bed-day at 0.9 events.

For bid B: 16 g at 0.0051 is 0.082, handling 0.147, total 0.229, and 0.206 per bed-day. The 20 per cent headline saving has become an 8 per cent increase, before the extra disposal weight of 6 g per event is counted.

For bid C: 8 g at 0.0078 is 0.062, handling 0.061 because a sachet takes 15 seconds rather than 40, total 0.123, and 0.111 per bed-day. C is 42 per cent below A and 46 per cent below B, and it has the highest price per kilo of the three.

The four numbers suppliers move

Dose. Quoting a low dose against a dilute-urine assumption. Ask for the dose at 1.020 specific gravity and in 0.9 per cent saline, and ask what happens at 1.030.

Absorption. Quoting free swell in deionised water, which can be double the saline figure. The saline number is the only one that predicts performance.

Pack size. A 25 kg sack looks cheaper per kilo than 8 g sachets, but the sack moves the labour and the dust into your building. Price both, and price the handling time at your own loaded hourly rate.

Delivery. Ex-works pricing with a pallet surcharge and a minimum order can add 8 to 12 per cent. Require delivered pricing to a named site with a stated delivery frequency.

The evaluation sheet, on one page

Columns: price per kilo delivered, stated dose at 1.020, absorption in 0.9 per cent saline, grams per event, handling seconds per event, cost per event, events per bed-day, cost per occupied bed-day, pack format, and two pass or fail items for safety data and technical statement.

Score on cost per occupied bed-day only, and use the other columns as gates. This prevents the familiar outcome where a panel awards points for a glossy sustainability section and then discovers in year one that the product needs 60 per cent more powder than the trial suggested.

What to do about the second year

Fix the dose in the contract, not the price. A clause requiring written agreement before any change to the recommended dose, and a price review tied to a published index rather than to the supplier’s discretion, protects both sides. Add a volume tolerance of plus or minus 10 per cent before either party can reopen the rate; beyond that, a review is fair.

We quote tenders on a delivered cost per occupied bed-day basis with the saline absorption figure and the dose at three urine concentrations attached, which makes the comparison above possible in a single meeting. The grade and pack options are at the urine gel powder product range.