To help carers prepare for a shift, ShiftCare offers an AI-powered Handover Summary for each client. Instead of manually scrolling through past progress notes and incident reports to determine how a client has been doing, carers can generate a quick, structured overview of the client's recent condition, activity, and risks with a single click.
This feature is only available for users on the Premium plan.
đ¤ This is an AI-generated summary designed to support (not replace) professional human judgment. Always verify critical information against the original source records and incident reports.
Generating a Handover Summary (Web)
The AI Handover Summary can be generated directly from a client's Details page.
Navigate to Clients > List > click on the client's name.
Click 'Generate' in the AI Client Summary banner.
Select a timeframe (how far back you want the AI to look): 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or 90 days. The calendar dates will automatically adjust to the timeframe you choose.
You can select exactly which data sources the AI should use to generate the summary. By default, all options are selected. You can tick or untick:
Shift progress notes
Incident form responses
Shift form responses
Profile context (Risk, General Info, Need-to-know)
Click 'Generate'.
The system will process the data in the background. You will see a loading screen, but you can safely close the window and continue working while it generates.
Understanding the Summary Sections
Once generated, the AI summary is organised into an easy-to-read, expandable card layout containing five key sections:
Overall Status Overview: A quick assessment of the client's general state, along with 3 to 5 key observations.
Clinical / Care Changes: Up to 5 specific updates grouped by category, such as Cognitive/Memory, Mobility, Mood/Behaviour, Sleep, Appetite/Nutrition, Medication, Safety, or Skin/Continence. Each change includes the exact date it was recorded.
Incidents & Risks: A structured list of real Incident reports from the selected time period, sorted from most urgent to lowest risk. You can click on the link to open the full incident report. Data is pulled from the client's Incidents, with permissions respected. Users without access will not see this content in the summary.
Alerts / Watch-Out Items: Action-oriented directives that tell the carer exactly what to look out for on their upcoming shift (e.g. "Monitor for increased confusion"). These alerts are colour-coded by severity (Orange for safety warnings, Blue for supportive guidance) and indicate how many underlying records generated the alert. If the AI detects no actionable alerts, this section will remain hidden.
Shifts and Events (Past/Upcoming): A quick view of the client's past and upcoming shifts, including which carers are assigned. Data is pulled from the client's shifts.
This structure is identical on both the web and mobile app summaries.
Viewing and Refreshing Saved Summaries
If a handover summary was recently created for a client, you won't need to wait for a new one to generate.
When you open the client's profile, the banner will show a quick 3-line preview of the existing summary, the date range used, and when it was generated. From here, you can click 'View Full Summary' to open the full details.
If another staff member is currently generating a summary for a client, you will see a 'Generating...' banner when you open the profile. The banner automatically updates in real time, so you don't need to refresh the page to see when the summary is ready.
If new sources have been added and you need an updated summary, you can click 'Regenerate'.
You can also access the AI summary (after generation) in the shift details screen when creating/editing a shift for the client. Click the down arrow in the AI Client Summary banner to open the details, and click 'View Full Summary' for complete information.
Mobile App Workflow
Carers can also generate and view AI Handover Summaries directly from the ShiftCare mobile app. When a carer opens a single-client shift in the mobile app, they will see an AI Client Summary banner on the Shift Details screen.
If a summary has already been generated, the banner will display the date range of the summary and how long ago it was created.
Tap the down arrow (expand) to reveal a quick preview of the Overall Status.
Tap 'View Full Summary' to open a dedicated screen containing all the detailed sections.
To generate or re-generate an AI summary:
Tap the 'Generate/Re-generate' button on the banner.
A pop-up window will open where you can select your timeframe (last 7, 14, or 30 days). The app will display the exact date span. Select your data sources and tap 'Generate'.
The banner will change to 'Generating' with a loading indicator while it works in the background.
Note: To prevent spam, you can only generate a fresh AI summary once every 4 hours per client. If you try to refresh before 4 hours have passed, the system will return the most recent saved summary.
For further assistance with the AI Client Summary, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.