Thanksgiving week is a reminder that residents need care every day of the year, but many support teams and vendors run on holiday schedules. If a network problem, printer failure or locked account happens on a holiday evening, staff need to know exactly who to call and what to do while they wait.
A little preparation before the long weekend prevents small issues from turning into stressful ones. Here is a checklist administrators and unit managers can walk through.
Start with the basics. Contact your IT provider and confirm:
The holiday schedule and any changes to regular coverage
The after-hours phone number or on-call process, and how it differs from the usual helpdesk line
What qualifies as an emergency and what can wait until the next business day
Expected response times during the holiday
Who the escalation contacts are if the first call is not answered
Write these down and post them where staff can find them at every nursing station and in the administrator-on-duty packet.
After-hours contact lists go stale quickly. Verify and print:
IT helpdesk and on-call numbers
Internet service provider support and account numbers
Phone system and nurse call vendor emergency lines
EHR vendor support, including after-hours technical support
Pharmacy, lab and imaging connectivity contacts
Administrator, DON and maintenance on-call numbers
Cyber insurance claims hotline
Keep a printed copy in a binder, not only on a computer that may be unavailable.
A short readiness review the day before can catch problems:
Backups: Confirm the most recent backups completed successfully, and that alerts are going to someone who will see them over the holiday.
Updates: Avoid scheduling major updates or changes just before a holiday. If something must be installed, do it early in the week with time to verify.
Power: Check that battery backup units and generators are working, and that network closets are in good condition.
Internet: Confirm failover connections are active, if you have them.
Printers and supplies: Stock toner, paper, wristbands and labels so staff are not stuck.
Accounts: Make sure temporary or agency staff have working logins before the weekend, since nobody may be available to create them.
Downtime forms and instructions should be easy to find. Before the holiday:
Verify there are printed medication administration records, treatment forms and census sheets, or that staff know how to print them quickly
Remind charge nurses where downtime kits are stored
Review who can authorize switching to downtime procedures and who to notify
Confirm how information will be entered after systems return
Holidays often mean more agency or float staff who may be unfamiliar with your systems. Prepare:
A one-page quick start guide for logging in and printing
Pre-created accounts or temporary credentials, handled securely
A short orientation with the charge nurse
Instructions on how to reach the helpdesk
Do not allow shared logins as a workaround. If an account is missing, escalate for a quick fix through the emergency channel.
Holidays are popular times for attackers because staff are distracted and support teams are thinner. Remind staff to be careful with unexpected emails, payment requests and gift card messages, and to report anything suspicious. Confirm that alerts from security tools go to someone who is on call.
Give staff a simple guide for emergencies. Examples include:
The EHR is unavailable or extremely slow for more than one workstation
Nurse call, door access or phones are failing
A ransomware message or unusual encryption appears
A suspected lost or stolen device
A network outage affecting an entire unit
For these, they should call the emergency number immediately and notify the administrator on duty. For routine issues, they can submit a ticket and keep working.
When the holiday is over, review what happened. Were calls answered quickly? Did staff know what to do? Update your checklist for next time.
UnityCare IT offers after-hours support options for healthcare clients and can help you build a holiday readiness checklist, contact sheet and downtime kit. If your facility wants more certainty about weekend coverage, we are happy to talk through the options.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172