Handoff
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Handoff
Walkthrough

From unboxing to documented care in 10 minutes.

Handoff is built to be set up by a nurse, not an IT department. No router login. No laptop. No app store. If you can connect to WiFi on your phone, you can set up Handoff.

1

Unbox and plug in

What's in the box:

  • The Handoff device (Raspberry Pi or ESP32 depending on model)
  • A power adapter
  • A short printed setup card with the QR code
  • That's it.

What to do:

Plug the device into any standard outlet near a WiFi router or anywhere in the home with WiFi coverage. The device will power on. A status light will indicate it is ready for setup.

2

Open the setup wizard on your phone

Scan the QR code on the setup card with your phone camera. This opens the setup wizard in your mobile browser — no app download required.

The wizard walks you through:

  1. Selecting the home WiFi network from a list
  2. Entering the WiFi password
  3. Setting your admin password for the device
  4. Entering the family email address for the daily report

The wizard takes about 3–5 minutes to complete. When it finishes, the device is live on the home network.

3

Create the care team

Log in to the device from your phone using the admin credentials you just created. Open the Team section and add each caregiver:

  • Enter their name and phone number (or email)
  • Assign their role: admin (for the lead nurse), caregiver (for other nurses and CNAs), or family (for family members with read-only access)
  • Send them a login link — they open it from their own phone on the home WiFi, create a PIN, and they're in

The whole care team is set up in about 5 minutes. Each person gets their own credentials. Each person's entries are attributed to them individually.

4

Log the first entry

From any phone on the home WiFi, open the browser and navigate to the device. (The address is printed on a small label on the device — something like handoff.local.) Log in with your PIN.

The care log opens. Select the entry type — vitals, ESAS assessment, medication, or diary note. Fill in the fields. Submit. The entry appears in the record immediately, with your name and the current timestamp.

The first entry takes a little longer — you are learning the interface. Most nurses report that by the second or third shift, entries take 45 seconds to 2 minutes for a full vital set.

5

The incoming nurse checks the record at shift start

When the next caregiver arrives, they log in from their phone. They go to the shift log and see every entry from the previous shift: vitals, pain scores, ESAS, any PRN medications given, any diary notes. They know exactly what happened. The verbal handoff becomes a confirmation of what is already written, not the primary communication.

This is what proper shift handoff looks like.

6

The family gets the nightly summary

Every night at 10 PM, the device generates and emails a plain-language summary of the day's documentation to the family email address on file. The email covers symptoms, vitals trends, medications, and any notes the care team flagged for the family.

No action required from the nurse. No action required from the family. The email goes out automatically as long as the device has internet access.

7

The weekly export arrives on Sunday

Every Sunday morning, the full week's records export as a CSV file and are emailed to the family. The file contains every entry from every caregiver for the past seven days — a structured, printable, saveable record.

What happens if the internet goes out?

The device continues to work. Caregivers can still log in on the home WiFi and document care normally. The daily email will queue and send when the connection is restored. The record is never dependent on internet connectivity — only the email delivery is.

What you need to get started.

Required

  • Handoff device (included in box)
  • Home WiFi network (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz)
  • A smartphone (iPhone or Android — any modern browser works, no app required)
  • An email address for the family summary

Not required

  • A laptop or computer
  • Technical knowledge
  • A cloud account or subscription
  • An app download

Compatible phones: Any iPhone (iOS 14 or later) or Android phone (Android 9 or later) running a current browser (Safari, Chrome, or Firefox). If your phone can load a website, it can use Handoff.

Ready to set up the record?