Holidays are good for people and hard on schedules. Providers want time off, patients still get sick, and a practice that does not plan ahead ends up with last-minute cancellations, uncovered requests, and tired staff. Telehealth gives you more flexibility than a brick-and-mortar clinic, but only if you decide in advance how to use it.
This guide covers how to map the holiday calendar, choose your hours, plan coverage, tell patients, keep them safe, and protect your team.
Start Early: Know the Dates
This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26. Christmas is Friday, December 25, and New Year’s Day is Friday, January 1, 2027. The days around them, such as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, both on Thursdays, matter too, along with other observances your patients and staff keep.
With about four weeks until Thanksgiving, now is the time to build the plan. Start with a one-page calendar showing every holiday, each provider’s time off, and your planned hours for each day.
Step 1: Decide Your Hours for Each Day
For each holiday and the days around it, pick one of three options:
- Closed. No visits and no on-demand availability.
- Limited. A reduced schedule with fewer providers or shorter hours.
- Normal. Business as usual.
Many practices find that demand changes around holidays, with some days quieter and others busier. Look at your own data from past years before deciding, instead of guessing.
If you offer on-demand visits, decide which hours to keep open. A provider can use the toggle at the top of the Dashboard to set availability, and the I Am Unavailable for Sessions status declines requests for as long as it is on (Virtual Clinic help article). Practices using appointment slots can adjust those slots for the holiday period instead.
Step 2: Build a Coverage Plan
Coverage means someone is responsible for patients when their usual provider is away.
- Name a covering provider for each day, and for each provider who is out.
- Write handoff notes for patients who may need attention, including what to watch for and who to call.
- Check licensure and location. If a covering provider sees patients in other states, confirm they are licensed there.
- Define the scope. Decide whether the covering provider handles only urgent issues or routine ones too.
When a visit needs a new host, SecureVideo’s Manage menu includes options to Change Host, Reschedule, Add Recurring Sessions, and Cancel (help article). Use Change Host to move a session to the covering provider so the patient keeps their time, and note the change in the chart.
For ongoing care, such as weekly therapy, decide in advance whether to skip, move, or cover each session. Recurring sessions can be edited ahead of time so patients are not surprised.
Step 3: Reschedule Proactively
Do not wait for patients to cancel. Review your schedule for the holiday weeks and contact patients with visits on closed days. Offer a nearby time, or a covering provider, and give them a simple way to respond. A short message works: “Our office will be closed on Thursday, November 26. Your appointment has been moved to Wednesday, November 25, at the same time. Reply if that doesn’t work.”
If your cancellation policy normally charges for late changes, decide whether to waive it when the practice is the one making the change. Most patients will see that as only fair.
Step 4: Tell Patients Everywhere They Look
Patients should hear about holiday hours more than once, in more than one place.
- Invitations and reminders. SecureVideo lets an Account Administrator add custom text to email notifications, such as text above the session time or below the Join Session button. Use it for a short holiday note. Remember that Custom Text applies to email only, not text messages (Custom Text help article).
- Text reminders. Add a line to your scheduled reminders, since Custom Text will not reach them.
- Your website and booking page. Post hours, and update them back when the holidays end.
- Phone greeting and email signatures. Include dates, and what to do in an urgent situation.
Send the first notice at least two to three weeks ahead, then a reminder a few days before.
Step 5: Give Patients a Safety Net
Closed days should never leave a patient without a path to help. Tell them clearly:
- For emergencies, call 911.
- For a mental health crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline).
- Who to contact for urgent but non-emergency needs, and how to reach them.
- When regular hours resume.
Behavioral health practices may also want to check in with higher-risk patients before and after the holidays, since this can be a difficult time for many people.
Step 6: Plan for Staff Time Off
Providers are not the only ones who take time off. Front-desk staff, schedulers, and support staff matter just as much.
- Collect time-off requests early and approve them by a firm date.
- Set minimum staffing for each open day. If you cannot meet it, narrow your hours.
- Cross-train. Make sure at least two people can handle scheduling, reminders, and troubleshooting.
- Use role-based access. SecureVideo supports role-based access for scheduling sessions on behalf of users, so a covering staff member can help without seeing more than they need (HIPAA and security).
- Share the troubleshooting playbook. Anyone covering the front desk should know what to do when a patient cannot join. See our guide to building a front-desk troubleshooting playbook.
- Protect rest. Coverage should be fair, rotating the least popular days and recognizing the people who take them.
Step 7: Consider Patients Who Travel
Holidays send people across state lines. A patient who usually lives in one state may be in another when their visit starts, and your provider’s license may not cover it. Ask where the patient will be, confirm their location at the start of each visit, and decide whether you can see them. Remind patients that time zones matter too, and state the time zone in every reminder.
Step 8: Know Where Tech Support Stands
Technical problems do not take holidays off. SecureVideo’s customer care team offers live phone, chat, and email support from a US-based team, on standby 24/7/365 (features overview). Include that support contact in your holiday notices so patients know who to call if they have trouble joining, and make sure your own team knows how to reach it.
Step 9: Prepare for the Return
The days after a holiday often bring a backlog: rescheduled visits, refill requests, messages, and patients who put off care. Plan for it. Keep the first days back lightly staffed with meetings and heavily staffed with patient care, clear messages first, and confirm that reminders are going out for the first week of January.
A Four-Week Countdown
- Four weeks out (now): Build the holiday calendar, set hours, and collect time-off requests.
- Three weeks out: Finalize coverage, update custom text and website, and send the first patient notice.
- Two weeks out: Reschedule affected visits, and brief covering providers and staff.
- One week out: Send reminders, confirm on-demand settings, and check that support contacts are correct.
- The week of: Monitor requests, and keep the safety net message visible.
- After: Review what worked, and write down what to change next year.
Sample Patient Message
“Our office will have limited hours from December 23 through January 1. We’ll be closed on December 24, 25, and January 1. If you need care while we’re closed, please call 911 for emergencies or 988 for a mental health crisis. Regular hours resume on January 4. If you have a visit scheduled during this time, we’ll contact you to confirm or reschedule.”
Adjust the dates and details for your own practice.
Common Mistakes
- Posting hours only on the website
- Leaving on-demand open with no one watching it
- Forgetting to cover staff roles, not just providers
- Not telling patients what to do in an emergency
- Skipping the post-holiday backlog
Frequently Asked Questions
How far ahead should we tell patients? Two to three weeks is a good start, followed by a reminder a few days before.
Should we waive late-cancellation fees for holiday changes? If the practice is moving the visit, most practices waive them. Decide in advance and tell staff.
Do we need to cover every day? Not necessarily. Decide which days to close, which to limit, and how patients can reach help.
Make the Holidays Easier for Everyone
A clear plan protects patients, supports staff, and keeps your schedule healthy. Explore scheduling and notifications or request a demo.