Holiday Observance for VANIHCS

VA Northern Indiana Health Care System (VANIHCS) is committed to supporting Veterans and their families during the holidays. Service Chiefs need to determine the suitable level of staffing required on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, to ensure proper patient care. 

Please review the following guidelines for Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025:

Clinic Appointment Management

Clinics, surgeries, and procedures will not be cancelled and will be staffed appropriately, except where patients can safely be rescheduled and seen BEFORE Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025. 

In determining staffing for VANIHCS operations that remain open, the same procedures shall be followed by Service Chiefs for Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, as for a holiday. 

• Scheduled appointments are approved to be contacted and offered an earlier appointment, only if an earlier appointment is available. However, those Veterans electing to keep a scheduled appointment on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, will have those appointments honored.
  • Approved scripting for those outreach calls is: “Hello. This is [name] calling from the [location] VA. I see you have a scheduled appointment on Wednesday, December 24 or Friday, December 26, 2025. We have an open slot on [today or Tuesday at XX:XX]. Would you be interested in being seen sooner?
• Open appointment slots on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, are approved to be blocked.
• Outpatient clinics that have scheduled appointments on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, may not depart until after the last scheduled appointment concludes, with approval of their chain of command.
• Service Chiefs are expected to make decisions on the behalf of their operations and services that will not result in negative Veteran impact.

Again, scheduled clinics, procedures, and surgeries will not be cancelled.  

Employee Leave Management

For pay and leave purposes, Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, shall be treated as falling within the scope of statutes and orders governing holidays. See attached OCHCO Bulletin for more information.

• Employees who are not involved in direct or support patient care activities may be excused and will have the day treated as a standard Federal holiday and receive Holiday Excused and not be charged leave.
• For those employees already scheduled to be on leave on December 24, 2024, the excused day off will supersede the annual leave, and the annual leave will not be charged.
• If an employee has scheduled use or lose annual leave for December 24 or December 26 and is unable to reschedule that leave for use before the end of the leave year, January 10, 2026, the leave will be forfeited. When use or lose leave is forfeited under these conditions, there is no authority that permits restoration of the leave.
• Employees required to work on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025, during their basic tour of duty are entitled to holiday premium pay as prescribed by Fiscal regulations. 

Supervisors and Timekeepers

• Due to pay period processing, resubmission of leave requests (with removal of the holiday) must be done quickly. Be mindful of having 2 less days to process timecards.
• Timekeepers and approvers are advised to complete pay period 25 timecards early to allow Fiscal Service time to complete payroll.
• AcuStaf code is available for use:
  • Wednesday, December 24, 2025 code is: LHCE-24
  • Friday, December 26, 2025 code is: LHEO-26

For your information, the Executive Order can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/providing-for-the-closure-of-executive-departments-and-agencies-of-the-federal-government-on-december-24-2025-and-december-26-2025/