Trainees with child or elder care responsibilities can face unexpected disruption of care arrangements that may cause further ripples of disruption among colleagues in their training program. Even the possibility of an interruption in care arrangements can cause stresses beyond the scope of that trainee's family. To help mitigate these stresses, we implemented an Emergency Care Back-up Service (ECBS) for all trainees at our institution on a trial basis. This program was not considered research.