Adding a patient (three ways)

What you’ll do

Get a patient onto your deck in one of three ways: type the fields into the SBAR/Patient form, dictate the patient out loud and let Synapse fill in the fields, or scan a QR code from another Synapse device to import the whole record. Each has a place. Typing is universal. Dictation is fastest. QR is for handoff.

Why nurses use this

You took report on six patients. The off-going nurse runs paper, so most of them you’ll add by dictation while you walk the unit. If you ever land on a shift where the previous nurse also uses Synapse, QR handoff makes the transfer almost instant. And the admit that rolled in at 0830 you typed by hand because that’s all you had. Different paths because shifts aren’t uniform.

How to get there

All three paths start from the Patients chip on the dashboard.

• Type: double-tap the Patients chip → the SBAR/Patient form opens.
• Dictate: single tap the active Patients chip → menu → “Dictate patient.” English-locale only.
• QR import: same chip menu → “Import patient.”

Step-by-step

Type a patient (the everyday way)

1. Double-tap the Patients chip. The form opens immediately. That’s the muscle-memory move. Or open the chip menu and tap “Add patient.” Either way you land on the same form.

2. Pick a mode. Synapse renders one of two layouts depending on your specialty and locale:

   • Quick Entry: one big free-text area. Write a few sentences about the patient and Synapse fills in what it needs. This is the fast path used for most shift entry.
   • Detailed SBAR: four steps (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation), each with its own fields to fill in. Used for nursing-school work, formal handoff practice, or in languages where Quick Entry isn’t available yet.

3. Fill what you have.

   • If Quick Entry: write one paragraph in the text area. “Bed 4, 72yo M, chest pain admit overnight, troponin pending, allergic to PCN.” Add more or less depending on how much you know right now. You can flesh it out later.
   • If Detailed SBAR: work through the four steps. Situation gets chief complaint and code status. Background gets history and allergies. Assessment gets vitals, labs, exam findings. Recommendation gets your plan. Required fields are marked per locale.

4. Save. The new patient lands at the front of your deck automatically. Auto-rotation is intentional. You don’t have to scroll to find the patient you just added.

Dictate a patient (English locale, faster)

1. Open the chip menu. Single tap the active Patients chip. Tap “Dictate patient.”

2. Speak. Describe the patient out loud: “Bed 4, 72-year-old male, chest pain, admit overnight, troponin pending, allergies penicillin.” Synapse builds a live transcript as you speak.

3. Pause or tap stop. A silence timer auto-stops; tap the mic if you want to stop sooner. Cancel discards the take.

4. Review the filled fields. Synapse fills in the SBAR fields from what you said. You see the form filled in. Edit any field that didn’t land right.

5. Save. Same as the typed path. New patient on the front of the deck.

Heads up: Dictate Patient is currently English-only.

QR import (for shift handoff)

1. Get a QR from the off-going nurse. They generate it from their patient card → share → Generate QR. See QR handoff for their side of the flow.

2. Open the scanner. Patients chip menu → “Import patient.” A camera viewfinder opens inside a modal.

3. Aim at the QR. The scan pulls the patient record across. The new patient lands on your deck.

4. Done. No retyping. The full SBAR, code status, allergies, and any patient-scoped notes the off-going nurse attached come with it.

Heads up: demo mode disables QR import, so you can’t scan a real patient into a demo session by accident.

Tips from the floor

• Use the typed form for admits you only half know. When you don’t have everything yet, “Bed 4, chest pain, admit pending” gets you a card you can flesh out later.
• Dictate is faster than typing. By a lot. A full SBAR by voice is 30 seconds; typing the same is 2–3 minutes. If you’ve never tried it, do it once on a demo patient first.
• QR is the move at shift change when both nurses are on Synapse. No re-typing six patients on the oncoming side. The whole record (including attached notes) comes across.
• Demo data while you’re learning. “Bed 4. 72yo M, chest pain admit”. Not “John Smith, MRN 1234567.” Build the muscle memory before you trust it with real charting.

Common questions

Why is Dictate Patient English-only right now? It only understands English well right now. More languages are coming.

Can I dictate inside the form? Dictation in Synapse is the one-shot “describe the whole admit at once” flow: dictate first, then edit any field that didn’t land right in the form. See dictation.

What if the QR import fails? You’ll see an error in the modal. Common causes: the code expired (generate a fresh one on the other device), camera permission denied (check Settings), or the off-going nurse hadn’t saved the patient yet. Try again.

What’s the difference between Quick Entry and Detailed SBAR? Speed vs structure. Quick Entry is one free-text area: write a narrative, Synapse fills in the fields. Detailed SBAR walks you through Situation → Background → Assessment → Recommendation as four structured steps and is the format used in formal SBAR communication. Specialty + language picks one for you.

Where do the form fields come from? From the template tied to your specialty. ICU shows ICU fields (drips, vent settings); med-surg shows med-surg fields. Templates are shared across the form builder too. See templates.

Where this fits in your shift

This is the moment you turn report into data. Once a patient is on your deck, the rest of the shift, tasks, notes, the Brain, end-of-shift, works against that patient. For the SBAR form specifics see SBAR intake; for voice capture see dictation; for the QR-side of the handoff see QR handoff.