Planned Unity downtime while clocks change this weekend

October 25, 2019

Starting at 12:45am on Sunday 27 October, Unity will be taken offline for up to two hours whilst the clocks go back before being brought back online.

This downtime will affect all colleagues who use Unity and are on shift overnight in the early hours of Sunday 27 October.

To prepare for this you must:

• Locate your Unity 724 downtime box
• Within this box there are Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) for managing your department during the downtime – BC02 724 downtime viewer, BC03 Documenting during a downtime, and BC04 Recording retrospective documentation after a Unity downtime
• Test that your 724 computers work and report any problems to the IT helpdesk on ext. 4050
• Hand over the arrangements to the night shift teams

What do I need to do overnight on Saturday 26 October?

If you’re on shift, make sure you sign and save everything you’re working on in Unity before it is taken offline at 12:45am on Sunday 27 October.

At 11.15pm on Saturday 26 October, access your downtime box, ensure your 724 computer is turned on and connected to the network. You will need to log on to your 724 computers using the username and password for the 724 viewer, which will be in an envelope marked ‘Unity downtime 724 username and password’. You will only be able to view, not amend, patient notes through Unity’s 724 viewer on the 724 computers.

You will need to check the medication that should be administered during the downtime and observations that will need to be carried out. Print off any medication requirements.

You must record medication and observations on paper during the downtime, in line with your business continuity plan. All activities recorded on paper must be entered on to Unity when the system is brought back online.

Desktop notifications will be released 15 minutes before Unity is taken offline and subsequently on the 724 computers when the system becomes available again.

If a clinical action was scheduled to take place between 1:00am to 1:59am on Sunday 27 October, you may see the following message, highlighting an inconsistency in times.

Daylight savings time is due to come to an end at 2am on Sunday 27 October. If the scheduled action was due to take place between 1am and 1.59am before the clocks went back, select ‘Daylight’. However, if the scheduled action was due to take place between 1am and 1.59am after the clocks had gone back, then select ‘Standard’.

Once the scheduled downtime is finished, please follow the QRG for inputting downtime information back into Unity and then return to working on the system as normal. The time will have adjusted while the system was unavailable.

When you have completed inputting your information back into Unity you must report this to the IT helpdesk on ext. 4050, stating your ward/department. If you don’t do this, then the 4050 team will call your ward/department to check on your status.

If you need help please contact your department managers.