QR handoff: patient sharing in one scan

What you’ll do

On the sending side: open a patient card, generate a QR code, hold your phone up to the oncoming nurse’s phone. On the receiving side: open Import patient, scan the code. The whole patient record. SBAR fields, code status, allergies, attached notes. Moves over. No retyping.

Why nurses use this

Shift change is the worst time to be typing into an app. The oncoming nurse needs their patients on their device in the two minutes between report and 1900 charting. If both nurses are on Synapse, QR handoff is the difference between “I’ll add them later” and “they’re already on the deck.”

How to get there

To send (generate):

• From a patient card on the deck → share → Generate QR.
• The modal renders the QR and waits for the patient’s one-use token to be ready.

To receive (scan):

• Patients chip menu → Import patient.
• Camera viewfinder opens, scan the QR on the sender’s screen.

Gating:

• Sending (generating a QR): available to any signed-in nurse.
• Receiving (scanning + importing): requires sign-up + the patientImport paid gate. Demo mode disables it entirely.

Step-by-step

Send a patient

1. Open the patient. On your Patients deck, tap the card to open the sheet.

2. Share → Generate QR. Tap the share action and pick Generate QR. A modal opens with a loading animation while Synapse mints a one-use token tied to the patient.

3. Wait for the token. If the token isn’t ready yet (new patient, slow network), the modal waits until it is. Only one QR dialog can be open at a time.

4. Hold your phone up. Position the screen so the oncoming nurse can scan it from their side. Brightness up.

Receive a patient

1. Open Import patient. Patients chip menu → Import patient. The QR scanner opens inside a modal.

2. Aim at the QR. Capture decodes the token automatically when it’s in frame.

3. Confirm the import. The patient record loads. Notes, SBAR fields, code status, allergies. All attached. Save to land them on your deck.

4. The patient lands at the front of your deck. Auto-rotation puts new admits on top.

Tips from the floor

• Brightness up on the sending phone. A dim screen with a QR on it scans badly from across a med cart.
• One token = one import. The QR is single-use by design. If the receiving nurse missed, generate a new one. Don’t reuse the same code.
• The whole record moves, including attached notes. Be conscious of what’s in patient-scoped notes. Anything you wrote that you wouldn’t want a colleague to read will travel.
• Use it for device-to-device on the same nurse too. If you switch from your phone to a tablet mid-shift, QR is faster than re-typing six patients.
• Demo mode disables import. If you’re inside a demo, QR import is hidden. You can’t scan a real-shift patient into a demo session by accident.

Common questions

What if the off-going nurse isn’t on Synapse? QR handoff requires both nurses to be in Synapse. For paper-only handoff, brain sheet scan is the path. Photo of the paper, parse to structured records.

Is the QR safe to leave on a screen? The token is single-use and short-lived. Once scanned, it’s burned. Even so, treat the QR like a brief PHI exchange. Show it, scan it, move on; don’t screenshot it.

Why can guests generate a QR but not scan one? Sending is creating a token tied to your own record. Scanning is mutating someone else’s data into your account, which requires a real account. The gating is asymmetric on purpose.

What if both phones are showing the import flow? The receiving phone has to be in the scan modal (camera open). The sending phone has to be in the generate modal (QR displayed). One of each. Same flow on different ends.

Can I QR a list of patients at once? One patient per QR currently. For a full assignment handoff, you’ll do six scans. Still faster than retyping.

Does this work between iOS and Android? Yes. The QR token is platform-neutral. Web (app.nursebrain.com) can also display a QR and scan via the device camera if granted permission.

Where this fits in your shift

QR handoff is the shift-change move when both nurses are on Synapse. For solo additions (typed, dictated), see adding a patient. For end-of-shift in general (ratings, tally), see ending your shift. For the paper-to-Synapse path, see brain sheet scan.