A controller at a multi-building operator is setting next year's supply budget per patient day and, before opening the general ledger, types "average supply cost per patient day" into a search box. The summary at the top of the results page comes back with $0.72, and that figure can land in a budget spreadsheet as if it covered the whole building.
The $0.72 is the median dietary non-food supply cost per resident per day from the Association of Nutrition & Foodservice Professionals' first skilled nursing benchmarking survey, reported in 2018. It covers the foodservice department's non-food supplies only, not nursing, medical, housekeeping, or maintenance supplies, and ANFP's 2025 report puts the same line at a $1.00 median.
Where the $0.72 per resident day figure comes from
The $0.72 comes from an article by LeAnn Barlow in ANFP's magazine, Nutrition & Foodservice Edge, March-April 2018, reporting results from the association's first skilled nursing facility benchmarking program. ANFP's benchmarking article states that "the reported median supply cost per resident per day is $0.72," with half of facilities reporting between $0.44 and $1.08. The program launched in March 2017 with over 700 registered participants, and the figure comes from that first year.
The same article reports the other two foodservice lines beside it. The median food cost per resident day was $6.25, with the middle half of facilities between $5.35 and $7.41, and the median supplement cost per resident per day was $0.47. Supply is the third line of that foodservice report, not a building-wide number.
What "supply" means in the ANFP number
Supply, in ANFP's benchmark, means the foodservice department's non-food purchases. The same 2018 article describes the program's cost lines as "per resident daily food, supplement, and non-food costs," which puts supply in the non-food slot. Neither the 2018 article nor the 2025 report spells out which items count as non-food, so a controller should ask the dietary manager what sits in the building's own dietary supply account before comparing.
Per resident day, or per patient day, is a department's spend over a period divided by the resident days in that same period. The division is the same for every department, which is how one dietary line gets mistaken for the whole building's number.
What the current ANFP supply figure is
The current ANFP figure for the same line is a $1.00 median non-food/supplies cost per resident per day, from the 2025 ANFP Skilled Nursing Facility Benchmarking Program report, covering calendar 2024. The report says its results use the entire data set with no filters applied, the non-food line rests on 91 responses, and the median facility has 70 residents.
| ANFP line, per resident per day | First survey (reported 2018) | 2024 data |
|---|---|---|
| Non-food supplies, median | $0.72 | $1.00 |
| Non-food supplies, middle half of facilities | $0.44 to $1.08 | $0.50 to $2.54 |
| Food, median | $6.25 | $8.00 |
| Supplement, median | $0.47 | $0.66 |
The 2025 spread matters more than the median. The middle half of facilities runs from $0.50 to $2.54 on that line, and the median annual non-food spend in the report is $26,098 per facility. A spread that wide describes what dietary departments report, not what one building should budget.
Why a building needs its own per patient day number
A building needs its own supply cost per patient day because the ANFP figure covers one department, and we have not found a public source for an all-department supply cost per patient day in skilled nursing. We have a separate post on the average supply spend per patient day in skilled nursing, and one on what a supply PPD benchmark has to state.
Pull supply spend by department from accounts payable for a period, pull resident days for the same period from the census, and divide. Buildings differ in the choices around that division. Which census count goes in the denominator, whether bed-hold days count, whether raw food sits in dietary supply or on its own line, and whether a mixed invoice gets split or coded to one department all change the result, so two buildings' numbers only compare when both made the same choices.
Census can change every day, so a supply budget set per patient day moves with it. The post on how a per patient day budget moves when the census moves covers that part. The ANFP line still works as a check on the dietary non-food piece, read as 2024 dietary data with a wide spread and not as the building's supply cost.
In Adelpo, spend is reported by department, and a department such as dietary splits into smaller categories, for example raw food, dietary supplies, dairy, and produce, so a building can see dietary non-food supplies as their own line. Census syncs daily from the operator's EHR, such as PointClickCare or MatrixCare, per-patient-day budgets adjust from it, and the operator chooses how census is counted for its budgets. Adelpo's per patient day benchmark survey is collecting operator data for a report that is not yet published.
Questions controllers ask
is $0.72 the average supply cost per patient day in skilled nursing?
The $0.72 is not a whole-facility supply cost. It is ANFP's median dietary non-food supply cost per resident per day from its first skilled nursing benchmarking survey, reported in 2018. It leaves out nursing, medical, housekeeping, and maintenance supplies, and ANFP's 2025 report puts the same dietary line at a $1.00 median for 2024 data.
does supply cost per resident day include food?
Not in ANFP's benchmark. ANFP reports food, supplement, and non-food supplies as three separate lines per resident per day, and its 2025 report puts the 2024 medians at $8.00 for food, $0.66 for supplements, and $1.00 for non-food supplies. A building that lumps raw food into one dietary line will not match any of the three.
how do I calculate supply cost per patient day?
Take a department's supply spend for a period from accounts payable and divide it by the resident days in the same period from the census. Decide which census count you use and whether bed-hold days are in it, and keep that definition the same every month, or the months will not compare.